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LITTLE MISS ODDITY 






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“T ain’t Nothin’ but an 


Old Weed !” 


t 



Little Miss Oddity 


By 


AMY E. BLANCHARD 

A 

Author of A Dear Little Girlf “ Mistress Mayf etc. 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY IDA WAUGH 



PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO 

PUBLISHERS 


THtti^RARY OF 

CONGRESS, 

Two Co«E« Reoeiveo 

AUG. 4 1902 

COt>V«H>HT EHTWV 
CLASS XXa No. 

i K 

COPY B.* 

H- ■ ■■■ 


?^7 
•Bi-'j Li 


Copyright, 1902 , 

By George W. Jacobs & Co. 
Published July, igo2. 


Contents 


CHAPTER. 

PAGE. 

1 . 

THE BACK YARD 

9 

II. 

IN THE GARDEN 

- 29 

III. 

WHERE IS JERRY? - 

- 47 

IV. 

A NEW ACQUAINTANCE - 

- 67 

V. 

THE VISIT 

- 85 

VI. 

PLEASANT DREAMS - 

- 105 

VII. 

HOW CASSY TRIED TO MAKE A 



FIRE - - - - 

- ‘19 

VIII. 

THE SUMMER LONG 

- 141 

IX. 

NEWS - - - - 

- ‘57 

X. 

PLANS - - . . 

- ‘75 

XI. 

THE SURPRISE 

- 191 

XII. 

UNCLE JOHN ARRIVES 

- 209 


6 


# 




Illustrations 

“ ’ Tain’t nothin’ but an old weed ” 

Every now and then Flora was carried over and 
shown the geranium 

They played all sorts of games 
Cassy’s eyes opened wider and wider 
“ What do you think ! News ! News ! ” 


Frontispiece 

Page 53 
« 99 

“ 133 

“ 163 


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CHAPTER I 

THE BACK YARD 

It was a queer jumbled up place, that back 
yard of the house where Gassy and Jerry Law 
lived ; old barrels tumbled to pieces in one cor- 
ner, empty tomato cans rolled against cast-off 
shoes in another; here bits of broken crockery 
wedged themselves in between a lot of shingles, 
and there a pile of iron scraps crowded against 
a bottomless chair; on a clothes-line flapped 
several pairs of overalls and a stunted little tree 
bore upon its branches sundrj’' stockings of vari- 
ous sizes and conditions. ^ 

It was a discouraging looking place, but Gassy, 
intently bending over a pile of dirt near the 
bottomless chair, did not heed anything but the 
fact that two tiny green shoots were poking 
themselves up from the unpromising soil. She 
was a thin-faced, bright-eyed child, not pretty, 

II’ 


12 


Little Miss Oddity 

but with an eager, wistful expression, and as her 
face lit up with a sudden smile she looked un- 
usually intelligent. 

“ Jerry, come here,” she cried ; “ I’ve got a 
garden.” 

“ Sho 1 ” returned Jerry, “ I don’t believe it.” 

“I have so; just you come and look at it.” 
Cassy tossed back the locks of brown hair that 
hung over her eyes and softly patted with her 
two small hands the dry earth around the 
springing blades of green. Jerry came nearer. 
“ It’s truly growing,” Cassy went on. “ I didn’t 
stick it in the ground myself to make believe; 
just see.” 

Jerry bent his sandy-colored head nearer to 
the object of his sister’s admiration. 

“ ’Tain’t nothin’ but a old weed,” he decided 
at last. 

“ How do you know ? ” 

“ I just believe it.” 

“Well, you don’t know, and I think it is just 
as good to believe it will grow to be a beautiful 
flower.” 

“ I wouldn’t count on that,” Jerry said. 

“ Why not ? ” 


The Back Yard 


13 


“ ’Cause.” 

“But just maybe,” Gassy insisted pleadingly. 
“ Why couldn’t it ? I don’t see why not.” 

“’Cause,” repeated Jerry, “I never saw no 
flowers growing in this back yard.” 

“But Mrs. Boyle has some right next door, 
and oh, Jerry, Mrs. Schaff across the street has 
some great big lovely red ones. Please let’s 
hope this will be a flower.” 

“Well,” replied Jerry, doubtfully, “I’ll pre- 
tend, but if it isn’t, you mustn’t say: Now, 
Jerry, what made you let me believe in it ? ” 

“ I won’t ; I truly won’t.” 

“All the same,” said Jerry, “I don’t see how 
you can keep it from being trampled on.” 

Cassy looked alarmed. 

“ You see it’s right out here where anybody 
can pull it up or do anything. Billy Miles 
would rather tear it to pieces than not if he 
thought you wanted to keep it.” 

Cassy’s distress increased. “ Couldn’t we hide 
it or something ? ” 

“We might for a little while, but if it should 
grow and grow why then anybody could find it 
out.” 


14 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Oh, dear,” sighed Gassy, “ it’s like Moses 
when they had to put him in the bulrushes. 
Maybe it will be a little wee bit of a flower and 
after a while we could come and dig it up and 
set it in the window. I know what I’ll do ; I’ll 
set that old chair over it and then maybe nobody 
will notice it.” 

“ There’s a piece of chicken wire off over 
there,” said Jerry, good-naturedly. “ I’ll get that 
and sort of twist it around the chair, then it will 
make a fence for it. Sh ! There’s Billy, and if 
he sees us he will play the mischief with any fun 
of ours.” 

Gassy arose hastily to her feet and faced the 
back door from which Billy’s form was just issu- 
ing. There was no love lost between Billy and 
the Law children. 

“ What yer doin’ ? ” questioned Billy, looking 
suspiciously at Gassy’s defiant attitude. 

“ Nothin’.” 

“ Humph ! I don’t believe ye.” 

Gassy spread out her hands. 

“Well, see, am I doing anything? Did you 
think I was eating strawberries or swinging in a 
hammock ? ” 


The Back Yard 


15 


“You’re too smart,” returned Billy. He came 
over and peered around. “ You’ve got some- 
thin’ in among those cans.” 

Gassy tossed up her chin. 

“You’re welcome to all you find in them.” 

Billy turned one over with his foot, looked 
among the scraps of iron and then said : 

“ You’re just bluffin’, but I’ll find out.” 
And he climbed the fence into the next 
yard. 

As soon as his stout legs had disappeared 
Gassy whirled the old chair around till it stood 
over her treasured plant. Jerry disengaged the 
strip of chicken wire from its surroundings and 
contrived a sort of coop-like structure which did 
not attract the eye, yet kept the small green 
shoots safely hidden without excluding the light 
and air. 

“ Now let’s go tell mother,” said Gassy, and 
took to her heels, Jerry following. 

Up the shabby dark stairway they ran. Gassy 
stepping lightly, Jerry, boy -like, with clattering 
tread. Mrs. Law glanced up from her sewing as 
they entered. “ We’ve got a garden,” said Gassy 
in a loud whisper. 


i6 Little Miss Oddity 

“ What do you mean ? ” inquired her mother, 
breaking off her thread with a snap. 

“We have truly,” Gassy insisted. “ It’s under 
an old chair in the back yard.” 

“ That’s a queer place for a garden,” re- 
sponded her mother, rethreading her needle and 
taking swift stitches. 

“Yes, but it happened itself, you know, and so 
we have to have it there. We’re so afraid Billy 
Miles will pull it up. Jerry thinks maybe it’s a 
weed, but we’re going to hope it’s a flower, a 
real flower. What would you like it to be, 
mother, a rose ? ” 

“ I’m afraid that would be setting my hopes 
too high. Let me see, perhaps it might be a 
morning-glory.” 

“ Are they pretty, morning-glories ? ” 

“Yes, very.” 

“ What color ? ” 

“ All colors, but the common ones are gener- 
ally purple or blue.” 

“ I’d like them to be blue. What do they look 
like ? ” 

“They grow on a vine, and the flowers are 
little vase-like cups that open first thing in the 


The Back Yard 


17 

morning and close when the sun shines on 
them.” 

“ But they open the next day ? ” 

“ No, not the same flower, but others do. They 
bloom very freely, although each one lasts only a 
little while.” 

“ Do they smell sweet ? ” 

“ I never noticed that they did.” 

Gassy was not entirely satisfied with this 
description and sat very still thinking about 
it. After awhile she broke out with: “You 
don” think it could be any other kind of a 
flower ? ” 

“ Oh, I didn’t say so. Of course it might be. 
We can tell very soon. I know the leaves of a 
morning-glory, and when I get time I will go 
down and look at your plant. Yes, I know 
morning-glories well enough. There used to be 
a great mass of them over the back fence where 
we used to live ; all colors, blue and pink and 
lovely white ones striped, I used to think they 
were very beautiful.” She sighed and worked 
faster. “ Don’t go out, Jerry,” she said presently. 
“ This work must go home this evening.” 

“ May I go with Jerry ? ” asked Gassy. 

0 


i8 


Little Miss Oddity 

Her mother heisitated and then replied, “ Yes, 
but don’t stay.” 

Spring was well on its way as open windows 
and doorsteps swarming with children showed, 
but in this narrow street ther^ were no perfume- 
laden airs ; it seemed instead that all the foul 
odors were made more evident by the warmer 
weather, and as the brother and sister made their 
way through the slovenly groups of loungers, 
there was little to make them realize the beauty 
of a world where green trees and sweetly smell- 
ing orchards made the heart glad. 

They took their way along soberly enough, 
Jerry lugging the big bundle and his sister trotting 
along by his side. From the narrow street they 
turned into a broader one where shops of all 
kinds were arrayed along the way. Into one of 
these the children turned, delivered their bundle 
and hurried out. They never tarried long at the 
place, for they did not feel comfortable under 
the old Jew’s sharp eyes, and did not enjoy being 
stared at by the two big boys who were always 
there, too. 

“We did hurry,” said Gassy when they reached 
the corner. “ And see, Jerry, there are trees 


The Back Yard 


19 

with tiny green leaves on them behind that wall. 
I have always wanted so much to see what was 
behind that wall. Do you believe you could 
climb it ? ” 

“Yes, ’course I could, but the cops wouldn’t 
let me.” 

“ I do want to know so much,” repeated Gassy 
wistfully. “ There is a gate, you know, but it’s 
boards, and it’s always shut tight. Can’t we walk 
around that way now? It won’t take us long 
and it’s so much nicer than the other way.” 

“I don’t know why,” said Jerry. “Brick 
walls ain’t so awful pretty.” 

“ No, but the trees are getting green ; little 
bits of baby leaves are coming out on them and 
we can see them above the wall. Let us go that 
way.” 

“ All right,” agreed Jerry. 

They trotted along till the brick wall was 
reached and then Gassy exclaimed excitedly: 
“ Oh, Jerry, I believe the gate is open ; there is a 
man there with a wheelbarrow. Oh, do hurry.” 

She ran forward as fast as her legs would carry 
her and sure enough the gate was open and be- 
yond it smiled such a garden as Gassy had never 


20 


Little Miss Oddity 

before seen. Tulips, red and yellow, flaunted 
themselves in their little round beds, daffodils 
nodded sunnily from the borders, primroses and 
pansies, flowering bush and early shrub were all 
in bloom. Gassy drew a long breath of delight. 
Was ever anything ever so beautiful? Her 
eager little face was bent forward and her big 
eyes were taking in the whole scene when the 
gardener came out trundling his wheelbar- 
row. 

“ Take care, sis,” he warned, “ don’t stand in 
the way.” 

“ Oh ! ” Gassy exclaimed, scarcely noticing what 
he said. “ Oh, isn’t it beautiful ? ” 

The gardener smiled. 

“ ’Tain’t so bad. You can step inside the gate 
out of the way, if you want to.” 

“And Jerry, too?” Gassy asked as her 
brother came up. 

The gardener looked suspiciously at Jerry. 
He had reasons for not thinking well of small 
boys. 

“ He’d better stay outside,” he said ; but seeing 
Gassy’s disappointed face he yielded. “ If you’ll 
keep right there by the gate I guess you’ll do no 


The Back Yard 21 

harm,” he told Jerry, and the two children 
stepped inside. 

Such a waft of sweet odors as met them, and 
such a glory of color. The gardener glanced at 
Cassy’s rapt face as he trundled in his last load 
of sand, and he looked pleased. 

“ You like it pretty well, don’t you ? ” he said. 
“ If I had time I’d show you about, but I’ve got 
to get some plants potted before night, and I’ve 
got to shut the gate now,” he added regretfull3\ 

Gassy turned slowly, her eyes still lingering 
upon the borders. 

“ She’s wanted to see the inside of this place 
more’n anything,” Jerry confided to the gar- 
dener as Cassy’s steps lagged, “ but the gate ain’t 
ever been open before.” 

“ Then I’m glad it happened to be this time 
when you were by,” said the gardener heartily. 
“ Some day if you happen to see me when I’ve 
got time I’ll take you all over the garden.” 

“ Oh, thank you, sir, thank you. I’d love that. 
Have you any mofning-glories ? ” 

The man laughed. 

“No, pesky things; they grow so fast that 
they’d get the best of me in no time ; though, 


22 


Little Miss Oddity 

now I think of it, there were some by the kitchen 
door last year. The cook planted them, and I 
guess they’ll come up again this summer too 
plentiful for my use. Do you like ’em, sis ? ” 

“ I never saw any,” Gassy told him. “ But I 
want to.” 

She turned away as the gardener made ready 
to shut the gate, and all the way home she had 
scarcely a word to say. “ It was like the garden 
of Eden,” she said under her breath once. 

“ I think he might have given us some flowers,” 
said Jerry. 

“ Maybe he couldn’t,” returned Gassy. “ They 
aren’t his. I think he was very good to let us go 
in. Oh, Jerry, how happy, how happy people 
must be who have a garden like that.” 

There was excuse enough for their having 
tarried when they reached home at dusk to find 
their simple little supper of mush and molasses 
ready for them. Gassy could talk of nothing but 
the garden, and all night long she dreamed of 
nodding flowers and green trees. 

In the morning her first thought was of the 
two green shoots under the old chair in the back 
yard. Perhaps the plant needed water; she 


would go down and see before any one was up. 
Carefully carrying a cupful of water she went 
down the rickety steps which led to the back 
yard. 

The little green shoots had stretched further 
up out of the dry earth, to the child’s delight. 
Lifting the chair with a cautious look around she 
poured the water upon the earth and watched it 
sink into the ground. She crouched there for 
some time as if she would discover the plant’s 
manner of growing. 

At last she arose with a sigh. Such a poor 
little garden compared to the one she had seen 
yesterday, but what possibilities did it not hold ? 
This tiny plant might yet show gorgeous blooms 
of red and yellow, or send forth big bunches of 
pink. Her thoughts went rioting along when 
they were interrupted by a hoarse laugh, and 
looking up startled, she saw the grinning face of 
Billy Miles peering over the fence. 

“ I caught ye,” he jeered. “ I seen ye. What 
yer got buried there ? ” 

“ Nothing,” returned Cassy stoutly. 

“ Yer another,” retorted Billy, clambering over 
the fence. “ What yer got in that cup ? ” 


H 


Little Miss Oddity 

Gassy turned the cup upside down, but 
Billy was not satisfied. He came threaten- 
ingly towards her, taking no heed of where he 
was stepping. 

“ Oh, take care,” cried Gassy, forgetting caution 
in her alarm lest his heavy tread should crush her 
precious plant. 

Billy looked down. 

“Ye tried to fool me,” he cried, seeing the 
moist circle out of which stretched the green 
shoots. 

“ I didn’t, either.” 

Billy for answer gave a savage kick and snap 
went the little stalk. Gassy burst into tears, 
picked up her treasured plant and went flying 
up-stairs. She laid the tiny stalk before her 
mother, and hiding her face in her hands sobbed 
bitterly. 

Jerry, still frowsy and unkempt, issued from 
his bit of a room. 

“ What’s the matter ? ” he asked, looking at 
Gassy in concern. For answer Mrs. Law held 
up the broken stalk, and Jerry looked his sym- 
pathy. 

“Hever mind, don’t cry so, dear,” Mrs. Law 


said at last. “Very likely it wouldn’t have lived 
anyhow.” 

“ How did it happen ?” whispered Jerry, 

“ Billy Miles,” Gassy whispered back, choking 
down her sobs. “ He saw me watering it and he 
got mad and kicked it to death. Oh, my poor 
little flower that was going to be a morning- 
glory. It was, wasn’t it, mother ? ” 

Mrs. Law examined the broken leaves. 

“ I think perhaps it was,” she replied. 

“Won’t it live if I plant it in a box?” asked 
Gassy, this new hope causing her tears to cease. 

“I’m afraid not.” 

“I’ll get even with Billy Miles,” muttered 
Jerry ; then louder he said, “Gheer up, Gass; I’ll 
get you a real, righty flower, see if I don’t.” He 
looked at his mother for encouragement. 

“ How will you do it ? ” asked Gassy, inter- 
ested. 

“ Never you mind. I will, honest, I will. I’ll 
tell mother. And drawing Mrs. Law to one side 
he confided to her his plan. 

All day long Jerry was absent, and when 
Gassy asked where he was, her mother only 
smiled, though if the truth were known he was not 


26 


Little Miss Oddity 

very far away, for he was keeping watch by the 
gate in the garden wall. If that gardener should 
but once appear Jerry knew well what he meant 
to do. He did not come home even to dinner, 
but munched a crust he had stuffed in his pocket, 
and kept his eye on the gate. 

“ He might just be coming out to dinner now,” 
the boy murmured to himself, “ and I’d be sure 
to miss him if I left.” But no gardener ap- 
peared till late. The clock had struck six and 
the streets were full of workmen returning to 
their homes when the gate did open and out 
stepped the gardener, dinner bucket in hand. 
He had no sooner appeared than Jerry met 
him, outwardly as bold as a lion, but inwardly 
anxious. 

“ Mr. Gardener,” he began. 

The man scowled down at him. 

“ What’s wrong ? ” he asked. “ Out with it.” 

“Nothing much,” returned Jerry, “at least, 
you see — you know me and my sister were here 
looking at your garden yesterday.” 

“ Yes, I remember now. • Well ? ” 

“And you know—” Jerry went on to tell hig 
story of the broken plant, concluding with : “ so 


The Back Yard 


27 


I thought some time, you know, you might have 
an extra plant, just a little bit of a one, that you 
wouldn’t miss, and if you’d sell it cheap, I’d work 
it out, the pay, I mean. 1 could help to wheel 
that sand, you know.” 

The man’s face broke into a smile. 

“ All right, sonny ; it’s a bargain. I must go 
home now, but you come around Monday, and 
sister shall get a plant.” 

“Shall I come to this gate?” asked Jerry 
eagerly. “ When ? ” 

“No, not here; round at the other side. We 
don’t often open this gate, only to take in loads 
of dirt and such, and when I am late I go out 
this way. You go all the way around to the 
other side and you’ll see an iron railing ; there’s 
another gate there ; go in and knock at the back 
door and say you want to see John McClure. 
Come about twelve o’clock and bring sissy.” He 
nodded and passed on, leaving Jerry in a state of 
extreme satisfaction, and ready to make for home 
with scurrying legs and a large appetite. 


• * 




IN THE GARDEN 



CHAPTER II 


IN THE GARDEN 

“ Where have you been all day ? ” Gassy asked 
as Jerry came blundering in. 

“You can’t guess,” he returned. 

“ Down by the wharf ? ” 

Jerry shook his head. “ Somewhere you like. 
I stayed outside ’most all day, but I got in at 
last ; you know where.” 

“Not the garden.” 

“Yes, sir, the garden, and what’s more we’re 
going to see it on Monday. I had a talk with 
the gardener; his name is John McClure.”^ 

“Really ? ” Gassy clapped her hands. 

“ Yes, really.” Jerry winked at his mother. 
That was not all there was to tell, but he meant 
to keep the rest a secret. 

“ I’m glad it’s Saturday night,” said Gassy after 
a silence, “for now I’ll have all the time I want 
for thinking about it, for I’ll have no lessons to 
study and to bother me. Besides, mother won’t 
31 


32 Little Miss Oddity 

have to work to-morrow and she can tell us all 
about the house where we were born. How long 
has it been since we left it, mother ? ” 

“Six years,” Mrs. Law told her. 

“I remember it a little,” said Jerry. “I re- 
member father, too.” 

“ I wish I did,” said Gassy sorrowfully. “ Don’t 
let’s talk about that now. Tell us what you did 
to-day.” 

“ I went to market and did my errands first, 
but there were not many baskets to take home 
this morning, and then I went and sat out on the 
curbstone by the wall and waited. Gee! but 
that’s a big place ; it takes up ’most a square, and 
it’s awful pretty up there. I saw a shiny car- 
riage stop at the door and a lady and a boy got 
out. I’d like to be that boy.” 

“Was he just your size?” asked Gassy, inter- 
ested. 

“No, lots bigger, but he looked friendly; he 
kind of smiled when he saw me there.” 

“ Gome, children, it’s cleaning up time,” said 
Mrs. Law. “We must get ready for Sunday ; my 
last buttonhole is finished. I expect Jerry is as 
hungry as a bear.” 


In the Garden 


33 


“I am as hungry as two bears,” Jerry assured 
her. “ What are we going to have for supper ? 
I don’t care much what it is, so there is enough 
of it.” 

“ Don’t tell him what it is,” said Gassy. 

Jerry approached the little stove where some- 
thing was simmering and sending out savory 
odors. He lifted the lid. 

“ Stew ! ” he cried. 

“Yes, with dumplings in it. You shouldn’t 
have taken off the lid, Jerry , it will spoil them.” 

“Never mind, it is all ready to dish up,” Mrs. 
Law told him. 

“ My, but it smells good,” said Jerry with much 
satisfaction. “Did you make plenty of dump- 
lings, mother ? They are jolly good with molas- 
ses on them.” 

“ I hope I made enough,” his mother told him. 
“ Gassy and I did not take a hearty dinner, for 
you were not here, and so we decided to have a 
hot supper.” 

“We don’t have such good things every day,” 
Jerry remarked, drawing up his chair. “ I won- 
der if we’ll ever have lots and lots to eat ; meat 
every day and dessert. My ! it ’must be fine. 


34 Little Miss Oddity 

I’ll bet that boy I saw to-day has all 
that.” 

“ I don’t believe he has dessert every day ; I 
don’t believe anybody has,” Gassy asserted, eye- 
ing her mother as she dished out a plentiful sup- 
ply of stew upon Jerry’s plate. 

“ Ho ! I’ll bet some people do. Don’t you, 
mother ? ” 

“ Why, yes, of course.” 

“ Did you use to ? ” Gassy asked. 

“I believe we did.” 

“Were we as rich as that?” Gassy looked 
her surprise. 

“We were not rich at all, but we were very 
comfortable and very content.” Mrs. Law gave 
a little sigh. 

“Just wait till I grow up, and we will be 
again,” said Jerry, pausing with a big piece of 
dumpling on his fork. 

“ That’s so long,” sighed Gassy. 

But to Jerry with a plentiful meal before him 
to-morrows were pleasant anticipations, and he 
replied : “ Pshaw ! no it isn’t.” 

Gassy glanced up and caught her mother’s tired 
look. 


In the Garden 


35 

“Well, no it isn’t,” she agreed; “it won’t 
be any time, and I’ll be grown up, too, 
and mother won’t have a thing to do 
but ” 

“ ‘ Sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,’ ” Mrs. 
Law put in. 

“‘And feed upon strawberries, sugar and 
cream,’ ” Gassy finished the line. “ I saw straw- 
berries in one of the shops yesterday.” 

“ I’d rather have dumplings any day,” Jerry 
decided, having finished eating his stew, and 
being now ready to attack the dumplings and 
molasses. To tell the truth, the dumplings formed 
the principal part of the stew and the meat was 
very scarce, but the children rather rejoiced at 
that, and completed their meal with much satis- 
faction. Then there were many little duties to 
be done, and of all the rooms in the tenement it 
is safe to say that Mrs. Law’s was in decidedly 
the best order for Sunday. 

Gassy could hardly wait till noon time Monday, 
and though she was usually a pretty good scholar, 
she made many mistakes that morning, and was 
only aroused to a sense of her inattention when 
it suddenly dawned upon her that she might be 


36 Little Miss Oddity 

kept in and that would be a calamity too dread- 
ful to contemplate. 

At last twelve o’clock came, and she found 
Jerry waiting outside the school door. 

“Come along,” he cried. “We don’t want to 
lose any time.” And catching her by the arm he 
hurried her along the street till they reached the 
long wall. 

“ Aren’t you going to wait at the gate ?” Gassy 
asked as Jerry, without pausing, went on. 

“No, we are to go around to the other side. 
’Way round where the horses go into the stable.” 

They found no difficulty in getting in, and, 
after walking the length of the garden path, 
they came upon their friend, the gardener, sitting 
on a wheelbarrow. He looked up as they came 
near. 

“Well, here you are,” he greeted them cordi- 
ally. “ Didn’t forget the time. Sun’s noon high 
and a few minutes past. Now then, my little 
lass, we’ll go find your plant ; I’ve got it safe 
and sound for you.” 

Cassy’s eyes opened wide. 

“ My little plant ? ” 

“ Yes, didn’t brother tell you? ” 


In the Garden 


37 


Gassy shook her head. 

“You’re a sly little lad,” he said, pinching 
Jerry’s ear. “I thought that was what you 
came for.” 

“ I thought it was just to see the flowers,” said 
Gassy. 

“You can do that, too, but we’ll pick out 
yours first. I slipped a lot of geraniums a while 
ago ; they’re easy cared for and are good bloom- 
ers ; no trouble if you give them a sunny win- 
dow and a little water. Now then.” He stopped 
before a row of potted geraniums already show- 
ing their gay blooms of red and pink. “ Take 
your pick,” he said. 

“ Oh ! ” Gassy crouched down and looked 
lovingly from one to the other. How could she 
decide among so many ? However, finally, after 
changing her mind frequently, she halted be- 
tween a crimson and a lovely pink. Then she 
sought Jerry’s advice, and he spoke for the red 
one, but Gassy thought her mother would like 
the pink one ; it was such a lovely color, and 
finally that was selected ; Gassy, hugging it to 
her, fairly kissed the little flower. 

“ How good you are,” she said. “ Oh, Mr. 


38 Little Miss Oddity 

McClure, what a lovely father you must 
be.” 

John McClure threw back his head and 
laughed. 

“ I’m no father at all,” he said ; “ I’m a lone 
man with neither chick nor child.” 

“I think that is a great pity,” said Cassy, 
gravely. “ I have been thinking of you living 
in a pretty little house with morning-glories 
climbing over the porch.” 

“ And all the place I’ve got is a room in a 
workman’s boarding-house.” 

“ I wish you did have a cottage.” 

“I’ve wished the same more than once, but it 
doesn’t seem to come my Avay. Come now, we’ll 
go see the rest of the flowers.” 

“ I’m afraid we shall miss our dinner if we do 
that,” Jerry put in. 

“ Oh, I’d rather miss my dinner than not see 
the flowers,” Cassy told him. 

“You Avould?” Mr. McClure looked pleased. 

Just then they saw a boy coming down the 
path. He had a cheery bright face, and Cassy 
concluded he must be the one of whom Jerry 
had told her. 


In the Garden 


39 

“ Well, John,” the boy cried, “I see you have 
company.” 

“Yes, Mr. Rock. This young lass here says 
she’d rather look at the flowers than eat her 
dinner. What do you think of that ? ” 

“ That she’s a girl after your own heart. But 
why can’t she do both ? ” The boy smiled down 
at Gassy as if expecting her to answer. 

“ Because we couldn’t get home and back to 
school in time and see the flowers too, and I do 
so want to see the flowers.” She looked wist- 
fully at Jerry. 

“And I suppose your brother would rather eat 
his dinner,” said Rock. “I think we can manage 
it. I’ll run in and get you a sandwich or 
something, so you won’t starve.” He was gone 
like a flash, his long legs covering the ground 
with great strides. 

“That’s just like Mr. Rock,” said John Mc- 
Clure. “ Come along, children, we’ll be looking 
at the flowers, and Mr. Rock will see that you 
don’t go hungry.” 

“But ” Cassy looked confused. “I — 

mother Do you think mother would like 

it, Jerry ? ” 


40 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ What ? ” John interrupted. “ I’ll venture to 
say she’ll not object to your taking a bit of a 
sandwich from Mr. Eock. Just make yourselves 
easy, and if you think there’ll be any trouble I’ll 
go and explain it to her myself. By the way, 
you won’t want to take your geranium to school, 
sis ; you’d better leave it here and call for it on 
your way home. Come now; these are the 
tulips.” And he began to guide them around 
the garden showing them all manner of sweet or 
showy flowers. 

They were not half way around when Eock 
appeared bearing a tray on which were two 
glasses of milk, a pile of sandwiches and two 
generous slices of pie. He set the tray down on 
a bench under a spreading tree. 

“I say, John, it’s a jolly place to eat, out here, 
this fine day. I’ve a mind to bring something 
for myself. Don’t begin your lunch, children, 
till I come back.” And he was off again, return- 
ing in a few minutes with -more sandwiches, some 
crackers and half a pie.. “How,” he said, “I 
call this great. Pitch in, youngsters. Come 
along, John, bring your dinner-bucket, and we’ll 
have a lively time.” 


In the Garden 


41 


Gassy and Jerry were rather shy at first, but 
Kock soon made them feel at home, and they 
thought they had never tasted anything so good 
as those chicken sandwiches and that apple 
pie. 

“ There ! ” exclaimed Kock, as the last crumb 
disappeared, “ I enjoyed that a great deal more 
than if I had eaten my lunch indoors. I went 
to the country for over Sunday and when I got 
back this morning it was too late for school ; the 
train was an hour late. I found mother wasn’t 
going to be at home to lunch, so, if 3’^ou hadn’t 
been here to keep me company, I’d have eaten a 
solitary meal indoors. By the way, what time 
do you go back to school ? ” 

Jerry told him, and he pulled out his 
watch. 

“ Then you’ll have to scamper,” he cried. 

“You’re coming back to get your geranium,” 
John charged Gassy, and she smiled up at him 
with such a sunny expression that John saw 
there was little danger of her forgetting. 

“ Those are nice little things,” said Rock as he 
watched the two children depart. 

“ That they are, Mr. Rock,” returned John. 


42 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ I wonder where they live,” said Rock. 

“ In one of the tenements beyond the square, 
so they tell me.” 

“ Pshaw ! that’s not a very nice place, and 
those children seem neat and well-behaved, and 
they speak well, too.” 

“They’re fatherless,” said John, “and it’s 
likely their mother has a hard time to get along, 
and can afford to live nowhere else, but they’re 
different from most of the gang down that way ; 
I saw that the first day when they stood by the 
gate and looked in.” And he told Rock of how 
he had first met the children. 

“I’m going to learn more about them,” Rock 
declared. “I’ll be here when they come back 
after school. That little girl’s face is a perfect 
sunbeam when she smiles, and the boy is a 
manly, honest little fellow.” 

True to his word Rock was there Avhen the 
children returned. 

“Where dp you live?” he asked them. 

“ On Orchard Street,” they told him. 

“ Have you always lived there ? ” 

“ No,” said Gassy, “ we used to live in a lovely 
little house near the city, and there were morn- 


In the Garden 


43 

ing-glories growing over the porch.” She looked 
at John. 

“ By the way,” said that worthy, “ I told you 
I’d see about the morning-glories. I believe I’ve 
some seed in the tool-house. You’re welcome to 
’em, and if you plant ’em they’ll be likely to 
grow, and you can train ’em over your window. 
Have you a good yard ? ” 

“ No,” Gassy said ; “ we have three rooms on 
the top floor, one big room and two little ones. 
Mother likes it up where we are because it is 
nearer the sky, and there is no one above us.” 

“Sensible woman,” said John, nodding ap- 
provingly. 

“And you’ve no yard? Well, you can plant 
the seeds in a box on the window-sill, unless you 
like to have a garden in the common yard.” 

“ Oh, we can’t. Billy Miles won’t let us.” 
And . Gassy told the story of her treasured 
morning-glory, and of its destruction. Rock and 
John listened gravely. “And I was so sorry,” 
said Gassy, “ for I had always wanted to see a 
morning-glory, because mother tells how they 
grew over our porch Avhere we used to live. 
We Avould be there now if papa had lived.” 


44 Little Miss Oddity 

“How long since he died?” Kock asked, 
sympathetically. 

“ Six years. I wasn’t three years old, and 
Jerry was about five. Papa got hurt on the 
railroad, you know, and he never got well.” 

“Yes,” spoke up Jerry. “And mother said 
some people said she ought to have lots of 
money from the railroad, because it was their 
fault, but she tried and they put her off, and she 
couldn’t afford to have a lawyer, so she just had 
to give up.” 

Eock listened attentively. “I wish she’d 
come and see papa, he’s a railroad man, and 
maybe he could tell her what to do.” 

“ Mother hasn’t any time,” said Gassy, shaking 
her head gravely. “ She makes buttonholes all 
the time ; she has to so as to get us something to 
eat and to pay the rent, but when we are big we 
shall not let her do it.” 

“Of course not,” said John. “Well, young- 
sters, I’ve got to go to work. You must come 
around again some day and tell me how the 
morning-glories are coming on. There is your 
geranium, my little lass.” 

“ And here’s a bunch of violets for your 


In the Garden 


45 


mother,” said Rock. “ Tell me your mother’s 
name and just where you live. Some day I 
might want to call on you.” He smiled at Gassy 
as he held out the sweet-smelling violets, and the 
children, as happy as lords, went off, Jerry car- 
rying his own and Gassy’s books and the little 
girl holding her geranium carefully with one 
hand, and in the other bearing the violets which 
she sniffed frequently as she went along. 





WHERE IS JERRY? 


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I 


CHAPTER III 


WHERE IS JERRY ? 

Carrying her plant in triumph, Cassy ap- 
peared before her mother. 

“See, see,” she cried out, “just see ! Isn’t it 
lovely ? And look at these violets. Oh, mother, 
we’ve had the loveliest time, and Jerry has some 
morning-glory seeds in his pocket. You don’t 
know all we’ve been doing. Were you worried 
that we didn’t come home to dinner ? Did you 
think we were kept in ? ” 

“ No, for I thought it probable that the charms 
of that garden would prove too much for you, 
yet I thought I should have two half-starved 
children to come home to supper,” 

“ But we’re not half-starved. We had — oh, 
mother, it’s just like a story. Tell her about it, 
Jerry, while I put my flower in the window, and 
give the violets a drink of water.” She set the 
flower-pot carefully on the sill, and then stood off 
to see the effect. Truly the gay pink blossom 
49 


Little Miss Oddity 

did brighten up the bare room, while the scent 
of the violets filled the air. “I feel so rich,” 
said Gassy. “ I never had such a lovely day.” 

“And how about the lessons?” asked Mrs. 
Law. 

Gassy looked a little crestfallen. 

“ The lessons weren’t quite as good as they are 
sometimes. You see,” she came close to her 
mother and fumbled uneasily with the hem of 
her apron. “ You see, mother, I couldn’t help 
thinking about the garden all the time, and I 
came near being kept in ’cause I didn’t pay at- 
tention. Wouldn’t that have been dreadful ? ” 

“It would have been pretty bad, for it has 
never happened to you, and I would have been 
very sorry to have had you come home with such 
a report.” 

“ But I remembered just in time, and I did pay 
attention the rest of the day. Are you tired, 
you poor mother, sitting here stitching, stitching 
all day long ? If I could only have brought you 
a piece of that pie.” 

“ Do you think that would have rested me ? 
I am not so very tired, for this is only Monday, 
you know.” 


51 


Where is Jerry? 

“ Oh, Jerry,” Gassy turned to her brother, “ we 
forgot to tell her what the nice boy said. Is he 
a boy or a young gentleman ? ” 

“Oh, he’s just a boy,” said Jerry grandly, with 
the judgment of his superior years. 

“His name is Rock, Rock Hardy, but his 
mother’s name is Dallas. That is the old Dallas 
place, you know, where the garden is, and Rock 
— Mr. Rock?” She looked inquiringly at Jerry 
who answered, “ No, just Rock ; he told me to 
call him that. His real name is Rockwell, but 
they call him Rock for short.” 

“Well then, Rock said that he wished you 
would come to see his father. He is a railroad 
man and maybe he could get you that money,” 

Mrs. Law shook her head. 

“ That was very kind, I am sure, but I could 
not think of troubling a stranger. No doubt the 
boy might think his father would be interested, 
but that was only his idea, and I couldn’t think 
of calling on Mr. Dallas upon such an invitation. 
I suppose the gentleman is Mr. Dallas, and Rock 
Hardy is his stepson.” 

“ Yes, he is, and I think Mr. Dallas must be 
very nice, for Rock is so fond of him.” Gassy 


52 


Little Miss Oddity- 

looked disappointed that her mother had not 
been willing to go right off to see Mr. Dallas. 
She had dreamed that great things would come 
of it, and now her hopes were blasted. But it 
did not take from the memory of the day’s pleas- 
ure, and she went about the room, setting the 
table for supper, and attending to her little 
duties, singing softly. 

There was not much in the room ; a few cheap 
chairs, one a large rocker, a table covered with a 
red cloth, a kitchen safe and a small cook-stove ; 
the windows were hung with cheap white cur- 
tains, but the floor was bare of carpet, though it 
had been stained. The house was an old one, 
and was let out in rooms to tenants who could 
afford only a small rent, consequently the neigh- 
borhood was now none of the best. There was 
an ill smell of cooking in the halls, and the sound 
of a constant banging of doors, and the shuffle of 
heavy feet on the bare stairs could always be heard. 

The top floor Mrs. Law thought by far the 
most desirable, although it was the cheapest, and 
with her children near her, away from the con- 
fusion and noise below, she felt that it was as 
much of a home as she could hope for. 



‘Every Now and Then Flora was Carried Over and 
Shown the Geranium” 



TTTT’ r \ 







Where is Jerry? 

It was hard to keep sturdy Jerry from mixing 
with the neighborhood boys, but though he had 
learned many of their rough ways and much of 
their speech, he was not without good principles, 
and was careful not to bring the language of the 
street into his home. His faults were not such 
as came from an evil heart, and his love for his 
mother and sister would cause any one to forgive 
him many mistakes. 

Gassy was such a mother-child that she shrank 
from the children in the house, and when she 
was at home from school rarely played with 
them. She would rather stay with her mother. 
Her principal playmate was a battered doll, 
which she had owned since she was a baby. It 
was the last gift from her father, and she prized 
it above all her possessions. 

The next afternoon she established herself in 
a corner with her doll. Flora, and carried on a 
long whispered conversation with her. Every 
now and then Flora was carried over and shown 
the geranium, and made to peer into the box 
which held the morning-glory seeds. At last the 
daylight waned and Mrs. Law moved nearer the 
window. 


^6 Little Miss Oddity 

“ It’s most bedtime, but I’ll tell you a story 
before you go to bed,” she heard Gassy say to her 
doll. “ Listen, and it will give you something to 
think about while you are trying to go to sleep. 
Once there was a little girl ’bout as big as me, 
and she had a mother and a brother and she 
hadn’t any money at all, but they all wanted 
some, so her mother went to see a gentleman 
who knew where there was lots of railroad 
money, and he gave a whole lot of it to her 
mother ’cause her husband had been hurt in a 
railroad accident, and so the little girl had a 
whole window full of flowers and violets every 
day, and chicken sandwiches and apple pie, but 
she didn’t get a new doll, only a new silk dress 
for her old one — a blue silk dress just like the 
sky, and oh yes — they had a nice little house 
with morning-glories growing all over the porch, 
and the little girl’s mother didn’t have to make 
any more buttonholes or sew any more on the 
sewing-machine ; she sat on a velvet chair and ate 
the chicken sandwiches and apple pie all day.” 

At this point Mrs. Law laughed. “ Didn’t she 
get rather tired of that ? ” she asked. 

“ Oh, mother, were you listening ? ” 


57 


Where is Jerry *? 

“ I couldn’t very well help hearing.” 

“That’s a new story,” said Gassy, gravel}'^ un- 
dressing her doll. “ I’ve never told it to Flora 
before. It’s not quite a true story, but I wish it 
was, don’t you ? ” 

“All but the occupation of the little girl’s 
mother. I think she would get dreadfully tired 
of sitting on a velvet chair, and of eating sand- 
wiches and pie all day.” 

Gassy laughed. 

“ I don’t believe I’d get tired of them. Gome, 
Flora, you must go to bed. I’ll give you one 
more sniff of violets before you go.” And after 
being allowed once more to bury her snub nose 
in the bunch of violets. Flora was put to bed, her 
crib being a wooden footstool turned upside 
down, and her covers being some old bits of 
cotton cloth. 

“ Go call Jerry and we’ll have supper,” said 
Mrs. Law. 

Gassy placed the violets carefully in the middle 
of the table, and leaving her mother to dish up 
the oat-meal, she went in search of Jerry. 
Hearing voices in the back yard she first went 
there, but there was no sign of him, and she went 


58 Little Miss Oddity 

next to the front door, which generally stood 
wide open. She looked up and down the dingy 
street, but saw nothing of her brother. She ran 
down the steps looking to right and left. At 
the corner she saw Billy Miles with a group of 
boys. 

“ Who ye lookin’ fer ? ” asked Billy. 

“I’m looking for Jerry,” Gassy told him. 
“ Have you seen anything of him ? ” 

“I seen him ’bout an hour ago,” he returned, 
winking at the other boys, who broke out into a 
loud laugh. 

Gassy looked at them sharply. 

“You know where he is,” she said positively. 
“ I think you might tell me.” 

“ I don’t have to,” said Billy teasingly. “ Go 
look for your precious brother if you want him. 
He’s so stuck up I guess you’ll find him on top of 
a telegraph pole.” 

Another loud laugh followed this witty re- 
mark, and Gassy turned away feeling that Jerry 
was in some place of which the boys knew, and 
that they had been the means of keeping him 
there. She well knew that to go home and tell 
her mother or to get the policeman on the beat 


59 


Where is Jerry? 

to help her would be a sure means of bringing 
future trouble upon both herself and Jerry, so 
she determined to hunt for him herself. 

She ran down the street calling, “Jerry, Jerry, 
where are you?” But after making a long 
search and finding no sign of her brother, she 
went back home discouraged. 

“ Jerry isn’t anywhere,” she announced to her 
mother. “ What shall we do ? ” 

“ Perhaps he has gone on an errand for some 
one. He does that sometimes, you know. We 
will have supper and save his.” 

Jerry very often did turn an honest penny by 
running errands after school hours, and his ab- 
sence could easily be accounted for on that score, 
but still Gassy was not satisfied. Somehow the 
recollection of Billy’s teasing grin remained with 
her, and she ate her supper very soberly. 

“ Mother,” she said after she had finished, “ do 
you mind if I go around to the garden and see if 
Jerry is there ? I don’t feel very sure about his 
going on an errand.” 

Her mother smiled. 

“Why, my dear, you are not worrying, are 
you ? I think Jerry wdll be here soon.” 


6o 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ I know, — but — Billy Miles — I believe he 
knew where he was — and please, mother ” 

“Well dear, if you will hurry right back, you 
may go. It will soon be dark, and I don’t want 
my little girl to be out in the streets so late.” 

“ I’ll come right back,” Gassy promised ear- 
nestly ; “ I will truly, mother.” 

“Yery well, run along, though I cannot see 
why you think you will find Jerry there.” 

“ Maybe Mr. McClure is working late ; some- 
times he does and Jerry may be helping him.” 

“ Yery well,” her mother repeated, “ run along 
as fast as you can.” 

Gassy caught up her hat and hurried oif, not 
stopping to look at or to speak to any one, and 
was around the corner in a jiffy, reaching the 
old Dallas place in a very short time. First she 
stopped a moment before the gate in the wall, 
thinking she might hear voices, but all was 
silent. 

“ I can’t hear even the daffodils ringing their 
bells,” said the child to herself as she ran around 
to the other side of the house. Just as she was 
passing the front door some one called her. 

“ Miss Morning-Glory, oh, Miss Morning- 


6i 


Where is Jerry ? 

Glory!” Looking up she saw Rock Hardy 
standing on the steps. “ Where are you going 
so fast, Gassy ? ” he asked. “ Did you want to 
see John ? He went home an hour ago.” 

“Oh, then, Jerry isn’t here,” Gassy exclaimed. 

“ No, I don’t think so, in fact I know he isn’t, 
for I have just come from the garden and no one 
was there.” 

Gassy’s face took on a troubled look, and Rock 
came down the steps looking at her kindly. 

“Is Jerry lost ? ” he asked, smiling. “ It seems 
to me he is rather a big boy to get lost. I reckon 
he’s man enough to know his way about town.” 

“ It isn’t that,” said Gassy, “ but I’m afraid 
those boys — Billy Miles, you know, and the rest 
— I’m afraid they’ve done something to him.” 

“ What makes you think so ? ” Rock came 
nearer. Gassy gave her reasons and Rock lis- 
tened attentively. “ I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” 
he said; “I’ll go back with you and help you 
find him. We can stop and tell your mother so 
she will not mind your being out. I don’t doubt 
but that the boys only wanted to tease you, and 
that he really has gone on an errand, but where- 
ever he is we’ll find him.” He took Gassy’s 


I 


62 


Little Miss Oddity 

hand in his and she felt great relief of mind. 
To have such a big boy as champion meant a 
great deal. 

The two traveled along together, Kock look- 
ing around him interestedly as they came nearer 
Cassy’s abode. He wondered why such a very 
nice little girl should be living in such a dirty 
street, and he wondered more as they mounted 
the steps and went from flight to flight. 

“ It’s at the very top,” Gassy told him, and 
finally her door was reached and they went in. 
“ This is Hock,” said Gassy to her mother, “ and 
he’s going to find Jerry.” She spoke with con- 
fidence. 

Kock, seeing the sweet-faced woman who spoke 
with such a gentle voice, did not wonder that 
Gassy seemed such a little lady. She looked like 
her mother and had just such a way of speaking. 

“ I suppose Jerry hasn’t come yet,” said Rock. 

“No,” Mrs. Law replied. “He has been gone 
a long time for him ; he is usually home to sup- 
per. I hope nothing has happened ; that he ” 

she looked at Gassy, “ that he has not been run 
over or anything of that kind,” she added, hesi- 
tatingly. 


Where is Jerry? 63 

“Ob, I don’t believe that,” said Rock in an 
assured tone. “ You know they say ill news flies 
swiftly, so we’ll think he has gone off some dis- 
tance and has been detained. Gassy and I will 
find him. We will inquire around, for some one 
has seen him go, no doubt.” 

“ I am very much obliged indeed,” Mrs. Law 
told him. “ I shall feel quite satisfied to have 
Gassy go if you are with her.” Therefore Rock 
and Gassy took their departure. 

Rock’s first move was to inquire of the big po- 
liceman at the corner if he had seen J erry Law 
since four o’clock. The policeman looked up 
and down the street and then at Rock and 
Gassy. 

“ Jerry Law, is ut ? ” he asked. “ A small-sized 
lad ut lives next dhoor to that little haythin Billy 
Miles? I’ve not seen um. Howld on; I did 
thin, airly in the afternoon. There was a crowd 
of bhoys out be Jimmy McGee’s lumber yard, and 
I belave Jerry was with the lot.” 

“ Thank you,” said Rock. “ You see he hasn’t 
come home yet, and his sister is worried.” 

“ He’ll be afther shtayin’ out later whin he’s a 
bit owlder,” said the policeman with a grin. 


64 Little Miss Oddity 

“ He’s not far off, I’m thinkin’. He’ll be playin’ 
somewhere, you’ll find.” 

The children had started off again when the 
policeman called them back. 

“The bhoys were chasin’ a bit of a dog, I 
moind,” he told them. 

“Oh!” exclaimed Gassy, “then Jerry must 
have tried to get it from them. I know he 
wouldn’t let any one hurt it if he could help it. 
Nothing makes him so mad as to see boys hurt 
poor little cats and dogs ; he’ll fight for them 
when he won’t for anything else.” 

Towards the lumber yard they went, and there 
they stood calling “Jerry, Jerry Law!” They 
walked along slowly, stopping every little while 
to listen. At last when they had reached the end 
of the lumber yard they heard an answer to their 
call. 

“ Listen ! Listen ! ” cried Gassy joyfully. 
“ Some one answered.” 

“ Gall again,” said Kock. And Gassy shrilly 
screamed “ Jerry ! Jerry ! ” 

“ Here I am,” came the reply. 

They looked around but could not seem to dis- 
cover the spot from which the answer came. 


Where is Jerry*? 


65 


“ Where are you ? ” called Eock. 

“ In the cellar,” was the reply. 

“ There, there, in that empty house ! ” Gassy 
dragged Eock along towards the corner, and 
crouching down by a little window at the side of 
the house, she said, “ Are you in there, J erry ? ” 
For answer a face and form appeared at the 
window, and there was Jerry sure enough. 


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A NEW ACQUAINTANCE 



CHAPTEE IV 


A NEW ACQUAINTANCE 

“ Oh, Jerry, Jerry, how did you get in there ? ” 
cried Gassy. “ Can you get out ? ” 

,“They fastened the door. I’ve banged and 
banged, but I couldn’t budge it. Gee ! but I’m 
glad you came. The door is ’round at the other 
side.” 

Eock was already on his way to it, and after 
climbing a fence he was able to get it unfastened 
and to set the prisoner free. Gassy waited im- 
patiently at the gate, till Jerry with a mite of 
a puppy in his arms, came out. The boy was 
battered and dirty, and bore the marks of a hard 
fight. 

“ Oh, you poor dear,” Gassy exclaimed, “ how 
long have you been in there ? Oh, Jerry, you 
have been fighting.” 

“ Of course I have,” he said grimly ; “ I wasn’t 

going to let a parcel of great big lunks set upon 
69 


70 Little Miss Oddity 

one poor little puppy without trying to take his 
part.” 

“ Good for you ! ” cried Eock, putting his arm 
across the shoulders of the smaller boy. “ Tell 
us all about it, Jerry.” 

“ Billy Miles and the other fellows were stoning 
this poor little chap, and I went for ’em. They 
chased us into this cellar, and I managed to fasten 
the door on the inside, for I knew if they once 
got hold of the dog they would kill it to spite 
me ; so then they fastened the door on the out- 
side and left us there.” Jerry told his story in a 
few words, stroking the mite of a dog mean- 
while. 

“ How long ago was that ? ” asked Eock. 

“ Hot long after I came home from school.” 

“You’ve had a long wait,” Eock remarked. 
“ I’m glad we found out where to look for you. 
Now we’ll go along, and I’d like to see those boys 
bother you.” Ho threw back his head and there 
was a resolute look in his eyes. 

“They’d better not try it,” said Jerry, looking 
up confidently into the bigger boy’s face. 

“ Do let me carry the puppy,” begged Cass}’-. 
But the puppy, now that it had escaped from its 


A New Acquaintance 71 

safe retreat, felt itself to be in the land of the 
Philistines, and had confidence in no one but the 
sharer of its imprisonment ; therefore Jerry care- 
fully hid it under his jacket, and they traveled 
back to where Mrs. Law was anxiously watching 
for them. At Rock’s suggestion they stopped to 
get some milk for the puppy, and then Rock left 
them safe at their own door. 

“You will let us keep the puppy, won’t you, 
mother ? ” the children begged. 

“ If it should get away, and anything should 
happen to it, you would grieve for it, and you 
know those spiteful boys would be only too glad 
to hurt it,” she told them. 

Gassy burst into tears ; the evening’s excite- 
ment and anxiety had been too much for her. 

“ How can they be so cruel ! ” she cried. 
“ What harm could a poor little dog do ? If they 
would only kill it outright it wouldn’t be so bad, 
but to stone it and make it suffer for days is so 
dreadfully, dreadfully wicked.” She crouched 
down on the floor where the little dog was hun- 
grily lapping its milk, and her tears fell on the 
rough gray coat, as she tenderly stroked the lit- 
tle creature. 


^2 Little Miss Oddity 

The picture she drew was too much for Mrs. 
Law’s tender heart, and she said; “You may 
keep it for a few days anyhow, and in the mean- 
time perhaps we will be able to find a better 
home for it.” 

Gassy smiled through her tears, but she sat 
looking very soberly at the small animal. 

“I saw some wicked, wicked girls, one day, 
mother,” she said presently; “girls, not boys, — 
and they were swinging a poor little kitten around 
by one paw, and then they would let it go up 
into the air and fall down on the ground as if it 
had no feeling, but some lady came along and 
made them stop, and she carried the kitten away 
with her. I was so glad she did, and I wanted, 
oh I did want to take those girls up to some high 
place and do the same thing to them as they were 
doing to the kitten ; I wonder how they would 
like it.” There was a vindictive expression on 
Gassy’s face that her mother did not like to 
see. 

“Why Gassy,” she said gently, “you must not 
be so spiteful ; that Avould be doing as Avickedly 
as the girls did, and you would know better, 
whereas they probably did not think they were 


73 


A New Acquaintance 

hurting the kitten ; I doubt if any one had ever 
told them that it would hurt a cat to do that to 
it, thdugh it would not hurt a doll.” 

“ I can’t help it,” persisted Gassy ; “ they were 
wicked and they ought to be punished, and I 
would like to be the one to do it.” She now had 
the puppy in her lap, the comfort of which 
seemed to appeal to the little thing, for it 
snuggled down comfortably. “ It is so cunning,” 
Gassy murmured in a soft voice very unlike the 
one she had just used. “ See, Jerry, it is going 
to sleep.” 

If anything, Jerry was the more interested of 
the two, for had he not snatched him from a 
dreadful fate ? And the two children vied with 
each other in paying this new member of the 
family such attentions as they could. 

With her flowers and the puppy Gassy was 
very happy for the next few days. The existence 
of that garden, too, which she might expect once 
in a while to visit, was another source of delight, 
and though she generally had kept more or less 
aloof from her school-fellows, she now did so 
more than ever. Very often they would pass 
her sitting in some corner at recess, and she 


74 Little Miss Oddity 

would hear them say : “ There’s Miss Oddity. I 
wonder what she’s mooning about now.” 

“Snakes or spiders, or some old thing like 
that,” she once heard the answer come, and she 
smiled to herself. They were never able to get 
over the fact that she was not afraid of mice, and 
that once she had spent the whole of her recess 
watching a colony of ants. 

“What do you suppose Gassy Law has been 
doing?” one of the girls said to the teacher 
who had come out to watch the class as they re- 
turned to the school-room. 

“ What ? ” asked Miss Adams sharply, keen to 
discover some misdemeanor. 

“ She’s been playing with ants ; she won’t play 
with us.” And the girls around giggled. 

“ She is an oddity,” Miss Adams had replied, 
and the girls, catching the name, thereafter ap- 
plied it to Gassy, so that now she was always 
Miss Oddity. A girl who preferred to play with 
ants to romping with her schoolmates was some- 
thing unusual, so they avoided her, and she, feel- 
ing that they had little in common, withdrew 
more and more. Although she longed for 
a real playmate, a girl after her own heart. 


A New Acquaintance 75 

none came her way, and finally she invented 
one. 

It was a great day when her imagination created 
Miss Morning-Glory. It was the day when her 
first morning-glory seed popped a tiny green head 
above the earth, and in her exuberance of joy 
over the fact. Gassy started to school with a great 
longing for some girl companion who could un- 
derstand her love for green growing things and 
for helpless little creatures. Then came the 
thought, “ I’ll make believe a friend, and I’ll call 
her Miss Morning-Glory,” and forthwith she 
started up a conversation with this imaginary 
comrade, to whom she was talking animatedly 
when several of the schoolgirls passed her. They 
stopped, stared, and nudged each other. 

“She’s talking to herself,” they whispered. 
“ I believe she’s crazy.” But Gassy’s lessons that 
day were those of a very intelligent little girl, 
and the others were puzzled. 

After this Gassy was not lonely. What could 
not this new friend say and do ? there were no 
limits to her possibilities. She was always ready 
when Gassy Avanted her. She never quarreled, 
never objected to any play that Gassy might 


76 Little Miss Oddity 

suggest, and moreover loved and understood all 
about animals and growing plants. 

On the day of the discovery of this new friend 
Gassy came home with such a happy face that 
her mother asked : “ What has happened, daugh- 
ter? You look greatly pleased.” 

Gassy went over to the window-sill and peered 
into the box of brown earth where several new 
blades of green were springing. 

“They are coming! they are coming!” she 
cried. 

Her mother smiled, and then she sighed. 
“ How you do love such things. Gassy,” she said. 
“ I wish you could live in the country.” 

Gassy came over and put her arms around her 
mother’s neck. “ I don’t mind so much now 
that I can go to the beautiful Dallas place, and 
now that I have Miss Morning-Glory. Oh, 
mother, it is so lovely to have her.” 

“ Her ? You mean them, don’t you ? I think 
there will be many Miss Morning-Glories in that 
box before very long.” 

Gassy shook her head. 

“Ho, I mean her.” She spoke a little shyly. 
“She is a new friend. I made her up like — 


77 


A New Acquaintance 

like a story, you know, and she likes all the 
things I do. She is here now ; she walked home 
with me, and she plays with me at recess. She 
likes to watch the ants, and the flies, and the 
bees.” 

Her mother looked a little startled. She was 
not quite sure if this imaginary friend was a 
wise companion for her little girl, yet since she 
did exist in Cassy’s world of fancy, there was 
nothing to do but let her stay there. 

“ I call her Miss Morning-Glory,” Cassy went 
on. “She wears the same colored dresses the 
morning-glories do. To-day she has on a pink 
one.” 

“ What does she look like ? ” inquired Mrs. 
Law, thinking it would be best not to discourage 
the confidence. 

“ She isn’t a bit like me,” Cassy replied. “ She 
has lovely blue eyes and pink cheeks and golden 
hair all in curls, not tight curls, but the kind that 
angels have.” 

“ What do you know about angels’ curls ? ” 
her mother asked, laughing. 

“ Why, the pictures tell,” Cassy returned, sur- 
prised at such a question. “You know the 


yS Little Miss Oddity 

Christmas card I have with the angel on it ; 
that kind of curls I mean.” 

“And what is Miss Morning-Glory doing 
now ? ” ’ 

Gassy glanced quickly across the room. “ She 
is over there holding the puppy. She says she 
wishes you would let us keep him and name 

him ” she paused a minute, “name him 

Kagged Robin.” 

Mrs. Law laughed again. “That’s a funny 
name for a dog.” 

“Well, you know, they are shaggy like he is. 
Mr. McClure showed me a picture of them, and 
doggie is a kind of blue.” 

“ So he is. I think he is what they call a 
Skye-terrier, but I wouldn’t name him if I were 
you, for we have found a good home for him 
in the country.” 

“ Oh ! ” The tears sprang to Cassy’s eyes. 
“.Jerry will be so sorry; he loves the dear little 
fellow.” 

“ I know he does, and I wish we could keep 
him, but you know, dear, the little milk he 
drinks is more than we can afford, and as he 
gets bigger he will require more.” 


79 


A New Acquaintance 

“Yes, I know,” said Gassy, faintly. 

“Wouldn’t you rather he should go where he 
can have all he wants to eat and drink, and 
where he will have plenty of room to run 
about ? ” 

Gassy gave a long sigh. “Who is going to 
take him, mother ? ” 

“ The milkman. You know he brings his milk 
direct from his farm, and he is a kind man who 
has children of his own, and I know they will be 
good to the little doggie. I think it would be 
better that he should go before you and Jerry 
become too fond of him, for you see he has only 
been with you such a short time that you will 
not miss him as you would if you waited 
longer.” 

“ I know,” Gassy repeated, but the tears still 
stood in her eyes. 

She had hoped that the puppy might be al- 
lowed to stay altogether, although from the 
first her mother had declared that it could not. 
Jerry was scarcely less distressed than Gassy 
when he was told that the puppy must go. He 
did not say much, but he carried the little fellow 
off to his room and when they came out again 


8o 


Little Miss Oddity 

Jerry’s eyes were very red, and if any one had 
taken the trouble to feel the top of the puppy’s 
head he would have discovered a wet spot upon 
it, caused by the tears that Jerry had shed. 

“ If we only lived in the country,” said the 
boy, “ we might keep him, but if anything was 
going to happen to him on account of our keep- 
ing him I would rather have him go and be safe. 
He won’t get any more tin cans tied to his tail. 
I’ll bet.” 

Gassy nodded emphatically. 

“ Yes, I’m glad, too, for him, but I’m dreadful 
sorry for us.” 

“ I declare,” said Mrs. Law, “ I have been so 
taken up with the thought of the puppy that I 
nearly forgot to tell you something very 
pleasant. Who do you think was here this 
morning ? ” 

“ I can’t guess. The rag man ? Did you sell 
the rags ? Then we will have something good 
for supper,” for the visit of the rag man always 
meant an extra treat, a very modest one, to be 
sure, but still one that the children looked for- 
ward to. 

“ No, it wasn’t the rag man ; it was some one 


A New Acquaintance 8l 

much nicer, and he brought an invitation for 
you.” 

“ For me ? ” Gassy ’s eyes opened wide. 

“Yes, an invitation to spend the day on 
Saturday.” 

“ Oh, mother, tell me where. Hurry, hurry 
and tell me.” 

“ At Mr. Dallas’s.” 

“ Oh ! oh ! a whole day in that lovely place ! 
Was it Mr. McClure ? ” 

“ Ho, it was Eock Hardy. A little girl is to 
be there for a few days, and Mrs. Dallas thought 
it would be nice for some one to come and play 
with her.” 

“And they asked me. Oh, how perfectly 
fine. I hope she is nice and friendly and isn’t 
stuck up.” 

“ If she is like Eock Hardy I don’t think you 
have anything to fear.” 

“Ho, indeed, and did you say I could go 
mother ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“I wish Jerry could go, too.” 

“ Jerry is going in the afternoon.” 

Gassy clapped her hands. “ Good ! I am so 


82 


Little Miss Oddity- 

glad. I wish, he would come back so we could 
tell him,” for after his farewell to the puppy, 
Jerry had not seen fit to remain within sight and 
hearing of him. “ I don’t feel so bad about los- 
ing the dear doggie now,” Gassy went on to 
say. “ I must tell Miss Morning-Glory about 
it!” 

She had not told her brother about this new 
friend, for Jerry was of too practical a turn to 
appreciate the fancy, and Gassy had asked her 
mother not to tell him. “ You understand, 
mother,” she said, “ ’cause mothers always can 
understand better than boys, and I don’t want 
Jerry to laugh at me. Do you know,” she told 
her mother, “that it was Kock Hardy who 
made me think of that name ; he called me by 
it.” 

“ Did he ? I suppose Miss Morning-Glory will 
not go with you on Saturday.” 

“ I don’t believe she will want to,” returned 
Gassy, easily. “ She wouldn’t go without being 
invited,” which adjusted the matter very satis- 
factorily. 

“ Did Kock say what was the name of the lit- 
tle girl ? ” Gassy asked. ' 


A New Acquaintance 83 

“ Her name is Eleanor Dallas,” Mrs. Law told 
her ; “ she is Mrs. Dallas’s niece.” 

“ I hope she is as nice as Bock,” said Cassy, a 
little uneasily. 










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THE VISIT 



CHAPTER V 


THE VISIT 

“ She is such a real little lady,” Rock had told 
his mother, when speaking of Cassy. “ Indeed,” 
he added, “ they are all of them much too good 
to be living in that dirty, noisy street. I wish 
there was some way to get them away from 
there, but I think Mrs. Law is very proud and it 
wouldn’t do to seem to patronize them. I wish 
you’d think about it, and see if you can’t get up 
some nice plan to put them where they belong.” 

So Mrs. Dallas had put on her thinking cap, 
and when little Eleanor Dallas came to spend 
Easter at her uncle’s house, Mrs. Dallas said to 
Rock: “How would it do to ask your little 
friend Cassy Lavv, to come and play with 
Eleanor ? If she is as well-behaved as you say, 
I should think we might ask her. You know 
what a good-hearted child Eleanor is and I am 
sure she will like to have a little girl to spend the 
day with her. You see her Cousin Florence is 
87 


88 


Little Miss Oddity 

still in Florida with her parents and Eleanor will 
not have any playmate but you.” 

“I think it would be a jolly plan,” Eock 
agreed, “and do you mind if Jerry comes too? 
He’s a nice little chap ; you remember I told you 
about that affair with the little dog.” 

“ I see no objection to his coming, but I think 
we’ll have him come in the afternoon, but Gassy 
might spend the day and there will be a good 
chance to get acquainted with her.” And that 
was how Gassy came to be asked. 

The prospect of this visit did much towards 
comforting the children after the milkman had 
borne away the little dog, and they made it their 
chief subject of conversation. They hoped it 
would be a pleasant day, that Jhe little girl 
would be just like Eock, that John McGlure 
would not be too busy, and that they would be 
allowed to play in the garden. 

“ Shall I wear my best frock ? ” Gassy asked 
her mother one of the first things. 

“ Yes, you will have to ; it is growing too small 
for you anyhow.” Mrs. Law sighed. “You’d 
better bring it to me and let me see if there is 
anything to be done to it.” 


The Visit 


89 

Gassy obeyed. Her plaid frock was the best 
she had ; it was not of very good material, but 
it was simply made, and so did not look as badly 
as it would have done if it had been fussy and 
showy. It was rather short in the sleeves and 
waist as well as in the skirt, and after looking it 
over Mrs. Law said, “ If I had time, I might be 
able to alter it, but I am afraid you will have to 
wear it as it is this time, for I have all I can do 
to get this work done by Saturday.” 

“ I will help you all I can,” said Gassy wist- 
fully. 

“ I know you will, dear child, but you cannot 
sew for me, and there are things beyond your 
little strength which only I can do, and on Sat- 
urday morning Jerry must be at the market, for 
we can’t afford to let that go. Hang up the 
dress again.” 

Gassy did as she was told, yet she did wish that 
she had a new frock for this unusual occasion. 
She wondered if the little girl she was going to 
see would be very finely dressed, and she found 
as the time approached that she rather dreaded 
the visit. But for the fact that she knew and 
liked Kock and John McGlure, she would almost 


90 


Little Miss Oddity 

have preferred to stay at home with Flora and 
Miss Morning-Glory ; and when at last she did 
set out it was with many misgivings. 

She was very conscious of the shortness of her 
sleeves, and the shabbiness of her shoes, though 
Jerry had blackened up these latter to the best 
of his ability, and they both agreed that the lit- 
tle cracks in the sides did. not show so very 
much. 

The little girl’s heart was beating very fast as 
she approached the old Dallas place. Was she to 
go up the front steps and ring the bell, or was 
she to go around to the side gate and enter that 
way ? She had not thought to ask, and not to 
do the proper thing would be dreadful. 

Finally, after a thoughtful pause, she slowly 
ascended the steps. If she were going to see a 
little girl whose uncle’s house this was, she must 
surely enter as did other visitors, her judgment 
very wisely told her. She was spared any 
further confusion, for the door had hardly been 
opened by the neat maid when Kock appeared, 
saying : “ W e’ ve been watching for you. Eleanor 
hoped you’d come early. Come right in. Here 
she is, Eleanor.” And then Rock led her into a 


The Visit 


91 

room furnished in rich warm colors, and with 
bookcases all around the walls. 

From the depths of a big chair sprang a little 
girl who looked, as Cassy afterwards told her 
mother, exactly like Miss Morning-Glory; blue 
eyes, pink cheeks, and angel curls were all hers. 

“ I’m so glad to see you,” said Eleanor sweetly. 
“ \yill you go up-stairs and take off your hat, or 
will you take it off here ? ” 

“ Oh, it doesn’t matter,” said Cassy bashfully. 
Her hat seemed such a very, very insignificant 
thing beside all this grandeur, but she took it off 
and held it in her lap. 

Eleanor gently took it from her. 

“I will hang it up here in the hall,” she 
said, “ and you will know where it is when you 
want it.” 

This done the two little girls sat looking at 
each other, feeling rather embarrassed. Eleanor 
was older and taller than Cassy ; moreover as 
hostess she felt it her duty to begin the talking, 
and she ventured the first remark. 

“It is such a pleasant spring day. We were 
afraid that it might rain and that then you 
wouldn’t come.” 


92 


Little Miss Oddity 

Cassy felt pleased, but did not know exactly 
what to say in reply. 

“ Are you the only girl ? ” Eleanor asked. 

“Yes,” Cassy replied; “there are only Jerry 
and me.” 

“ I am the only one,” Eleanor told her. “ Don’t 
you wish you had a sister ? I often do.” 

“ Yes, so do I,” Cassy answered. She would 
like to have told Eleanor of the new friend of her 
fancy. Miss Morning-Glory, but she did not feel 
well enough acquainted yet, and for a little 
while the two children sat looking at each 
other wondering what to say next. Then Eock 
came in. 

“ How is the puppy ? ” he asked. 

“ Oh, didn’t you know ? He has gone to live 
with the milkman,” Cassy told him. “Mother 
thought he would be so much better off there. 
He lives in the country, you know, and he said 
Eagged Eobin was a real nice little fellow, and 
he’d be glad to have him, but we were awffully 
sorry to let him go.” 

“Is that the little dog you were telling me 
about ? ” asked Eleanor, turning to Eock. 

“Yes, you know, Jerry saved him from that 


The Visit 


93 

pack of boys,” he made answer. “Why don’t 
you take Gassy up-stairs to the sitting-room, 
Eleanor ? It is lots more cheerful up there ; or 
maybe she’d rather go into the garden, she’s such 
a lover of flowers.” 

“We might go up-stairs ai^d see Aunt Dora 
first,” said Eleanor, “ and go to the garden after 
a while. Don’t you think so. Gassy ? ” 

Gassy agreed, although in her secret heart she 
preferred the garden first, last, and always. 
Then up-stairs they went to a bright sunny room 
which Gassy thought the prettiest she had ever 
seen. 

There was a big table, covered with magazines, 
in the middle of the floor; the window held 
flowering plants ; a number of comfortable chairs 
and a wide, soft lounge looked as if they were 
meant for every-day use, while the room had 
just enough pretty trifles in it to make it look 
well. The pictures on the walls were a few 
water-colors, flower pieces and landscapes ; while 
the walls themselves were a soft green with a 
border of trailing roses. Sitting by the window 
was a pretty woman, as charming as the room 
itself. 


94 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Aunt Dora,” said Eleanor, “ this is Gassy 
Law.” 

Mrs. Dallas held out her hand. 

“ I am so glad you could come. Gassy,” she 
said. “ I know Eleanor and you will enjoy play- 
ing together. What do you say to having this 
room to play in this morning? You are going 
to have luncheon in the garden, or at least Kock 
has a little scheme that he and John are carrying 
out, and unless you would specially like to play 
there, I have my suspicions that they would 
rather you would keep out of the way this morn- 
ing, and let them give 3’^ou a surprise. You can 
have the whole afternoon there, you know.” 

“ Oh, do let it be a surprise,” exclaimed Eleanor. 
“ I love surprises. Don’t you. Gassy ? ” 

“ Sometimes,” she replied. She felt rather shy 
as yet, and stood somewhat in awe of this pretty 
lady in her dainty morning gown. 

“ I am going to lend Gassy the dolls to play 
with,” said Mrs. Dallas to Eleanor, “ Dock’s and 
mine, you know; and you will have your pre- 
cious Kubina, so you will both be provided.” 
She left the room for a moment and returned 
bringing a doll dressed in boy’s clothes and an- 


The Visit 


95 

other in girl’s clothes; the latter was quite an 
old-fashioned one. 

“ These are Marcus Delaplaine and Flora Mc- 
Fliinsey,” said Mrs. Dallas. “They are both 
Dock’s now, although Flora used to be mine 
when I was a little girl, so naturally she is much 
older than Marcus. Dock was always fonder of 
his own doll when he was a little fellow. He 
used to say he felt more at home with him. 
You know where the piece bag is, Eleanor, and 
if you want to make doll’s clothes you can help 
yourselves. You don’t have to call the doll 
Flora if you’d rather name her something else,” 
she said, smiling down at Gassy, and holding the 
doll of her childish days affectionately. 

“Oh, but I would like to,” Gassy replied. 
“ My doll is named Flora.” 

“Is she? then it will seem quite natural to 
you.” She smiled again and nodding to the two 
girls, she left them together in the pleasant 
room. It was not long before they were play- 
ing like old friends. Indeed before the morning 
was over Gassy felt so at home with Eleanor 
that she told her all about Miss Morning- 
Glory, and had confessed her discomfort at 


g6 Little Miss Oddity- 

having to wear a frock she had so nearly out- 
grown. 

Eleanor comforted her upon this last score. 

“ I am sure it is a real pretty plaid,” she said, 
“and the warm weather is coming when you 
won’t have to wear it.” Nevertheless, Gassy 
knew that she had nothing else so good, and 
that it would be some time before she could lay 
this aside. Eleanor was quite taken with the 
idea of Gassy’s imaginary friend, and suggested 
that she should make a third in their plays. “It 
is just as easy to make believe that she is here as 
to make believe that the dolls can talk,” she de- 
clared. “ What does she. look like ? ” 

“She looks just like you,” Gassy told her a 
little timidly. 

“Oh, then. I’ll be Miss Morning-Glory,” de- 
clared Eleanor. “ Would you like that ? ” 

Gassy’s eyes showed her pleasure, as she 
nodded “ Yes.” 

“ Then you won’t feel as if I were a stranger 
at all, and you can talk to me just as you do to 
her,” Eleanor went on to say. 

This did place Gassy upon easier terms with 
her new friend, and if Eleanor was sometimes 


The Visit 


97 


surprised by Cassy’s odd remarks, she was none 
the less interested in the little girl, though she 
did not wonder that Cassy’s schoolmates called 
her Miss Oddity. A little girl who felt entirely 
at home with spiders, who thought daddy-long- 
legs fascinating, and who would make such re- 
marks as: “You remember the dear little 
inching-worm I had last summer. Miss Morning- 
Glory. I always feel so sorry to think I shall 
never see it again,” was a queer person surely. 

About one o’clock Kock appeared. 

“What time will Jerry be here?” he asked 
Cassy. 

“What time is it ? ” 

“ One o’clock.” 

“ Oh, then he can’t be long, for he is generally 
at home by half-past twelve, at the latest, on 
Saturdays.” 

“Are you all ready for us, Eock?” asked 
Eleanor. “ I am just wild to see what you have 
been doing.” 

Kock smiled. “ You will see very soon.” 

“ Are we going to eat luncheon out of 
doors ? ” 

“ Not exactly.” 


98 Little Miss Oddity 

“Oh dear! I wish Jerry would come.” Elea- 
nor could not curb her impatience. 

“ There he is now,” cried Kock. “ Come, 
girls.” And the three rushed down-stairs and 
into the garden to meet Jerry, who was standing 
with John McClure waiting for them. 

“ You want to see what we have been doing, 
don’t you. Miss Eleanor?” said John, smiling at 
Eleanor’s eagerness. “ Well, come along.” And 
he led the way down to the foot of the garden 
where stood a small brick building that was used 
in winter for the storage of flower-pots, bulbs 
and such like things. 

As John opened the door the children ex- 
claimed, “ Oh, how fine I ” for it was like a fairy 
bower. Along the shelves at each side were 
ranged flowering plants, and pots of trailing 
vines. On the floor reaching up to the shelves 
were boxes of blooming shrubs and palms ; two 
canary birds, in their cages swung in the win- 
dows, were singing blithely. In the middle of 
the floor a table was spread ; a centerpiece of 
ferns and pansies ornamented it, and at each 
one’s place was a little bunch of sweet violets 
tied with green and purple ribbons. A pretty 


t 



(•' 


L. o' 


They Played All Sorts of Games' 






» 




- 1 

« 


I 




The Visit 


loi 


basket at each end of the table was tied with the 
same colors ; one basket was filled with sticks of 
chocolate tied with the lilac and green, and the 
other held delicate green and purple candies. 

“ It is just lovely, Kock ! ” cried Eleanor. 
“ Did you do it all yourself ? I think it is 
lovely, and — oh, yes, I see, to-morrow will be 
Easter, and that is why you can use all the 
fiowers and plants before they are sent to the 
church.” 

The luncheon that was served, though not a 
very elaborate one, seemed so to Gassy and 
J erry ; they felt as if suddenly transported to an 
Arabian Night’s entertainment, and they looked 
across the table at each other with smiling eyes. 

When the luncheon was over they played all 
sorts of games, up and down the garden walks 
and in among the trees and shrubbery. The 
day would have been one full of content, with- 
out a cloud, but for a single accident. 

The two girls were hiding in the tool-house, 
when Eleanor caught sight of a chrysalis swing- 
ing from above them. 

“ Oh,” she cried, “ I do believe that is a fine 
chrysalis of some kind, a rare moth or butterfiy. 


102 Little Miss Oddity 

I am going to get it, and see Avhat it will turn 
out.” She clambered upon some boards to reach 
the prize, Gassy deeply interested watching her, 
when suddenly her foot slipped and she knocked 
from a lower shelf a can of green paint which 
went down splash upon the floor, spattering 
Gassy from head to foot. 

Gassy was overwhelmed, for poor as the dress 
was and half ashamed of it as she had been, 
nevertheless it was the best she had, and her 
eyes filled with tears. Eleanor, as distressed as 
her visitor, was at her side in an instant. 

“ Oh, what have I done ? What have I 
done ? ” she cried. “ Oh, dear, oh, dear I I am 
afraid it won’t come out. Let us go to Aunt 
Dora ; she will know .what to do.” She caught 
Gassy by the hand and sped with her into the 
house, calling “ Aunt Dora, Aunt Dora, do come 
and help us ! It was all my fault. I have ruined 
Gassy’s dress.” 

Mrs. Dallas appeared at the door of the bath- 
room where Eleanor had gone with Gassy to try 
the effect of hot water. 

“You didn’t mean to,” put in Gassy hastily. 

“ No, of course not. My foot slipped. Aunt 


The Visit 


103 

Dora. I was climbing up for a chrysalis that 
was in the tool-house, and I knocked the can 
from the shelf.” 

“Gassy had better take her frock off,” said 
Mrs. Dallas, “and I will see what benzine will 
do. I am afraid it will not take it out alto- 
gether, and that it will leave a stain, but we will 
try it. Call Martha, Eleanor, and we will do 
our best with it.” 

Much abashed Gassy removed her frock and 
after some time the paint was taken out as far as 
possible, but it did leave a stain, and where the 
spots were rubbed the goods was roughened and 
unsightly. Gassy’s stockings and shoes, too, were 
spattered, but the latter were easily cleaned, and 
Eleanor furnished her with a pair of clean stock- 
ings, so this much was readily settled. The frock 
was another matter, and poor Gassy had visions 
of staying at home from church, from Sunday- 
school, and upon all sorts of occasions that 
required something beside the faded, patched, 
every-day frock which she wore to school. She 
could hardly keep back her tears when Mrs. 
Dallas and Eleanor left her in the latter’s room 
while they went off to air the unfortunate frock. 



PLEASANT DREAMS 


CHAPTER VI 


PLEASANT DREAMS 

After a little while Eleanor returned, went 
to the closet in her room and hung two or three 
of her own frocks over her arm ; then she went 
out again and presently Mrs. Dallas came in 
alone carrying a pretty blue serge suit over her 
arm. 

“ Gassy, dear,” she said, “ will you try this 
on?” 

Gassy shrank back a little, but Mrs. Dallas 
smiled and said, coaxingly : “ Please, dear,” 

and Gassy slipped her arms into the sleeves. 
“ It is a little large,” Mrs. Dallas decided, “ but 
not so very much, and it will take no time 
to alter it; I will have Martha do it at once. 
Eleanor feels so badly about having spoiled 
your frock, and I know her mother would wish 
that she should in some way make good the 
loss. Please don’t mind taking this ; it is one 

that Eleanor has almost outgrown, and it is only 
107 


lo8 Little Miss Oddity 

a little long in the sleeves and skirt for you. I 
will have Martha alter it before you go home, 
for we would both feel so badly to have your 
best frock spoiled, and to-morrow being Sunday 
how could you get another at such short 
notice ? ” 

She spoke as if Gassy’s were much the better 
frock and the little girl was grateful, though she 
said earnestly : “ It is much nicer than mine, 

Mrs. Dallas.” 

“ It ought to be. When a person has spoiled 
your best frock she ought to supply you with a 
new one, quite new, and this is not, though it is 
not worn.” So Gassy was furnished in this un- 
expected way with a frock which was neither 
too short in the sleeves nor the skirt, and which 
was far better than she ever dared hope for. 

“ I will send the other one home when it is 
thoroughly aired,” Mrs. Dallas told her. 

“You must remember that I am Miss Morn- 
ing-Glory,” Eleanor told her as they parted, 
“ and I shall expect to see you every time I 
come to Uncle Heath’s.” So Gassy went off 
with her clouds lifted and with the memory of 
the ver}'- happiest day of her life. 


Pleasant Dreams 


109 

“ She is a queer little child,” Mrs. Dallas told 
her husband, “ but she is a little lady and her 
mother must be one. I am very much interested 
in them.” 

“ So am I, Uncle Heath,” Eleanor said, “ and I 
think it is a dreadful shame that Cassy’s father 
died of that accident, and that they have never 
had any money from the railroad people. Jerry 
says they ought to, and that his mother was ad- 
vised to — to — what is it they do to railroads to 
get money ? ” 

“ You mean sue them ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, that’s it. I knew it was a girl’s 
name. They ought to have done that, but Mrs. 
Law hadn’t the money to get a lawyer, and rail- 
roads are hard to fight, Jerry says. I don’t see 
how anybody could fight a railroad, but that is 
what he said.” 

“ Humph ! ” said Mr. Dallas, thoughtfully, 
“ we must look into this.” 

Although Mrs. Law looked a little grave when 
Gassy told of how she came by this fine new 
frock, she agreed that it was perfectly right 
under the circumstances to accept it. She lis- 
tened to the account of the day’s doings with 


1 10 


Little Miss Oddity 

much interest, and was well pleased that they 
should have had such a good time. 

“ Eleanor looks just like Miss Morning-Glory,” 
Gassy whispered, as her mother tucked her in 
bed. 

“Rock Hardy is the splendidest boy I ever 
saw,” Jerry confided to her, and his mother 
gave him a kiss assuring him that no boy could 
be dearer than hers no matter how splendid he 
was. Jerry had worked hard to earn his holi- 
day, and he had proudly poured his earnings, 
sixty cents, into his mother’s lap when he came 
home from market that Saturday morning. 
Both the children were very tired from the 
events of the day and they fell asleep so soon 
and slept so soundly that they did not hear a 
tap at the door and a voice inquiring for Mrs. 
Law, neither did they see Mr. and Mrs. Dallas 
enter, nor hear the long conversation that 
followed. 

They would have been surprised to hear their 
mother tell all the details of their father’s acci- 
dent, for she did not like to talk of it, and 
they would have wondered to see Mr. Dallas 
from time to time, jot down something in a little 


Pleasant Dreams 


111 


note-book. And Gassy did not know that it was 
not Miss Morning-Glory who kissed her as she 
dreamed, but that it was Mrs. Dallas who leaned 
over the bed to see the sleeping child still hold- 
ing a violet in her moist hand, a little limp violet 
now, but still a sweet one. Nor did she know 
that Mrs. Dallas handed her mother two cunning 
baskets as she left the room, and that Mr. Dallas 
set down something in the corner of the room 
when he came in. 

Yet she had pleasant dreams, and the first 
thing when she woke in the morning she remem- 
bered that it was Easter Day, and then she sat 
up in bed very wide awake. They would have 
eggs for breakfast, and they would have biscuits ; 
she smelled them baking. 

She popped up out of bed and looked towards 
the window where the sun came streaming in ; 
then she gave a glad cry and her bare feet 
pattered across the floor, for, standing by the 
side of her treasured geranium and casting it 
quite in the shade, was a tall white lily, and on 
the other side a pot of pansies. Gassy clasped 
her hands and stood on tiptoe to reach the tall 

lily. 


112 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ Oh, angel lily, angel lily, where did you come 
from ? ” she cried. 

“ Why, daughter, don’t you know it is Easter 
Day ? ” said her mother, watching her delight 
with a pleased smile. 

“Yes, but we never, never had a lily before. 
Did father send it ? ” 

Her mother’s eyes grew moist. 

“ Perhaps he did,” she answered, softly. Then 
after a silence, “ Mrs. Dallas brought it and the 
pansies last night, the lily for you and the pan- 
sies for Jerry.” 

“ Oh, mother, and what did they bring you ? ” 

Her mother’s eyes smiled. “ Good news, dear, 
and hope. Hurry now and get dressed. I hear . 
Jerry stirring, and the biscuits are nearly done.” 

Gassy made her toilet with great haste, her 
eyes wandering every minute to the tall, stately 
lily. 

What a wonderful Easter morning for her. 
She remembered that Eleanor had said that John 
would send to the church the flowers which had 
decorated the room where they had lunched. 
She wished that she had asked if it was the same 
church to which she and her mother went, if so, 


Pleasant Dreams * 113 

how pleasant it would be to see the flowers 
again. 

“For,” thought Cassy, “ I know those flowers ; 
they are friends of mine, and I’d like to see them 
there all standing around the chancel. Dear 
angel lily, are you sorry you couldn’t go too ? ” 

She nodded towards the white blossom and 
then went back to her room to put on the frock 
which was now a reminder of her pleasant yester- 
day. She viewed herself with much satisfaction 
in the little mirror over the bureau, and then she 
went out to where her mother was setting the 
breakfast on the table. 

“Oh, mother, let us put the pansies on the 
table,” she said ; “ they are so sunny-looking and 
they are smiling all over their faces. The lilies 
are so solemn ; they make me feel as I do in 
church, but the pansies are funny like brownies.” 
She lifted the pot of pansies and set it in the 
middle of the table, and then stood off to see the 
effect. “Jerry, Jerry,” she called, “hurry up; 
you don’t know what there is to see out here.” 

This aroused Jerry’s curiosity and he made 
short work of being ready for Cassy to show him 
the plants. 


114 


Little Miss Oddity 

“Just think,” she said, “Mr. and Mrs. Dallas 
were here last night, and we didn’t know it. 
Wasn’t it lovely of them to bring these to us ? 
And, oh, Jerry, if they go to our church we’ll see 
our flowers there ; the ones we had in the lunch- 
eon room yesterday.” 

That did not appeal very strongly to Jerry, 
though he admired the pansies and thought the 
lily a “dandy.” He was more concerned at the 
prospect of breakfast and certainly was better 
pleased with something that Mrs. Law produced 
from the chest. 

“Rock and Eleanor sent them to you,” she 
told the children as she handed each of them a 
little box. 

Jerry had his open in a jiffy and gave a’ whistle 
of delight while Gassy fumbled nervously at the 
string which tied hers. But it was opened at 
last and disclosed a little nest holding three eggs, 
one of pink sugar, one of chocolate, and one “ a 
real righty egg ” dyed purple and with the name 
“ Gassy ” upon it. They had never had more than 
one egg apiece on Easter and this rich supply 
was something delightful. 

“ Oh, mother, mother, what makes them all so 


Pleasant Dreams 115 

lovely to us ? ” Gassy cried. “ I feel like sing- 
ing. I’d like to be a canary bird.” 

“ Sho ! I wouldn’t,” responded Jerry. “ I’d 
rather be myself. I don’t want to be shut up in 
a cage and live on bird-seed.” He had just fin- 
ished his sixth biscuit and it is not to be wondered 
at that he should consider bird-seed rather insuf- 
ficient for his appetite. Hot biscuits were much 
more to his liking. 

Gassy set off very proudly for Sunday-school, 
yet, curiously enough, the imaginative little soul 
felt a little regretful that her old carefully worn 
frock must stay at home, for Mrs. Dallas had 
brought it back with her the evening before. It 
seemed treating it with scorn, and before she 
went out she turned to the closet where it hung 
and touched it lovingly. 

“You are a dear good frock,” she whispered, 
“and I love you. I am proud of my new one, 
but I don’t love it.” And then she left a crack 
of the closet door open that her old plaid frock 
might be in view of the white lily on the win- 
dow-sill. She did not tell her mother of her 
feelings on this subject. There were many 
things which little Miss Oddity said and did 


ii6 Little Miss Oddity 

which few persons would understand, and she 
was aware of it. Her world of fancy was a very 
different one from that in which most persons live. 

She stood rapt and thoughtful before her lily 
till her brother should be ready. She was won- 
dering if it would be right to allow Miss Morn- 
ing-Glory to go to church with her, and then she 
decided that it would be better that she should 
remain at home to keep the lily company, for 
maybe the lily would be lonely in a strange place 
with no acquaintances but the pansies and the 
geranium. However, she thought Miss Morn- 
ing-Glory might be permitted to walk to church 
with her, for she had on a new frock, too, this 
morning ; it was of purple and green, and in her 
mind’s eye Gassy saw plainly the man}^ floating 
ends of satin ribbon which ornamented this in- 
visible companion’s Easter gown. 

When she reached the Sunday-school and had 
taken her seat, she looked around to see if Kock 
and Eleanor were there, but they were not, 
though in church she caught sight of Eleanor’s 
“ angel curls ” in a pew near the front, and then 
she saw Mrs. Dallas, and by peeping around the 
big pillar near them she could get a glimpse of 


Pleasant Dreams 


117 


Rock, so she knew that the flowers that . lifted 
their fair heads around the chancel were her 
flower friends. She thought she could distinguish 
them from the stranger ones, and she nodded 
gravely to them as she left the church. 

In consequence of sitting on the other side of 
the church she had no opportunity of speaking to 
Eleanor unless she should wait outside, and this 
she asked to be allowed to do. 

“ I want to thank her,” she told her mother. 

After a while she saw Eleanor coming along 
ahead of her aunt. She wore a pretty new frock 
and a hat trimmed with wild flowers. She 
caught sight of Gassy and smiled, and then went 
over to where she stood waiting. 

“ I didn’t know you came here to church,” she 
said. “ Wasn’t the music lovely ? ” 

“ Yes, and the flowers were, too. I knew some 
of them,” Gassy added gravely. “I want to 
thank you for that dear nest of eggs. I never 
had so many before.” 

“ There weren’t very many,” Eleanor returned. 
“ I am glad you liked them. We dyed the purple 
ones ourselves, Rock and I, and Rock put the 
names on them.” 


li8 Little Miss Oddity 

“ And the lily, the lovely lily,” said Gassy. “ I 
never, never thought I should have one of my 
very own.” She wanted to thank Mrs. Dallas 
for it, but felt too shy to go up to her before all 
that crowd of people. “ Please tell Mrs. Dallas 
I think it is so beautiful, and I think when 
she is an angel she will look like one of my 
lilies.” 

Eleanor laughed. 

“ I will surely tell her,” she said. And when 
she repeated the message Mrs. Dallas smiled, and 
then her eyes grew very moist. 

“ And to think that a little sweet soul like that 
must live in such surroundings. But she shall 
not always, shall she, Heath ? ” 

She laid her hand on her husband’s shoulder, 
and he made answer : “ Not if I can do anything 
to prevent it.” 


HOW GASSY TRIED TO MAKE A 
FIRE 


I 


i 



CHAPTER VII 


HOW CASSY TRIED TO MAKE A FIRE 

Only once more did Gassy see Eleanor before 
she returned home after her Easter holiday, and 
that was one afternoon, which added another red 
letter day to Cassy’s calendar. Looking over the 
top of her geranium she saw standing before the 
door a shining carriage drawn by a pair of 
glossy bay horses, and presently she heard foot- 
steps approaching the top floor, and then some 
one knocked. Gassy opened the door and there 
stood Eleanor. 

“ I have come to take you to drive,” she said. 
“It is such a nice afternoon to go to the park.- 
Can you go ? ” 

“ Oh ! ” Cassy’s breath was almost taken by 
this announcement. “ Come in,” she said, “ and 
I will ask mother.” 

Eleanor stepped into the room. It gave her a 
little shock to see how very plain it was, just as it 

I2I 


122 


Little Miss Oddity 

had given her a shock to see the street in which 
Gassy lived. She had not realized that this little 
new friend was so very poor, although Lock had 
told her so. But it was pleasanter up on this top 
floor than it was below, she reflected. Then she 
heard Gassy saying, “ Here’s mother,” and she 
stepped over to where Mrs. Law sat sewing. 

“ Aunt Dora was not going to use the carriage 
this afternoon, and she thought it would be nice 
for Gassy and me to take a little drive ; it is such 
a lovely day, and I am going home to-morrow. 
May she go?” She looked with sympathetic 
eyes at Mrs. Law stitching away for dear life, 
and thought how she would dislike to see her 
mother work so hard. 

Mrs. Law stopped the machine for a moment 
and looked up with a smile at Gassy’s eager 
face. 

“It is very kind of Mrs. Dallas and you to 
want to give Gassy such a pleasure. I shall be 
glad to have her go, and I know she will enjoy 
it. Go get ready, dear.” 

“ Gouldn’t you go, too ? ” Eleanor asked wist- 
fully, looking at Mrs. Law’s pale cheeks. 

“ I am afraid not,” was the reply, “ though I 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 123 

thank you for thinking of it. I must finish this 
work this evening. Won’t you sit down and 
wait ? Cassy will not be long.” 

Eleanor sat down and watched Mrs. Law’s 
swift movements. 

“ Could I see Flora ? ” she asked after a few 
moments’ silence. 

Mrs. Law smiled. 

“Why certainly. I think she is in her crib 
over there in the corner.” 

Eleanor looked and saw no crib, but she caught 
sight of Flora’s placid face peeping above the side 
of the overturned footstool which served as her 
bed, and she went over and lifted the doll out. 
She was not a beautiful creature, she reflected ; 
not near so pretty as Kubina, but she appreciated 
Cassy’s devotion to her, and she held her tenderly 
in her lap till Cassy returned. 

“ I would like to give her one of mine,” she 
thought, “ but it wouldn’t be her own child, after 
all, and she cares just as much for her Flora as I 
do for my Rubina.” 

Cassy looked pleased to see Flora receive this 
attention from her visitor, and was more pleased 
still when Eleanor insisted upon putting the doll 


124 Little Miss Oddity 

up on the window-sill where, as she said, she 
could look out and see them drive off. At the 
door Eleanor turned : 

“ Good-bye, Mrs. Law,” she said. “ I wish you 
could go, too,” and then she followed Gassy 
down-stairs, glad to get out of the ill-smelling 
house. 

The fairy god-mother, the pumpkin coach, and 
all the other fairy delights seemed to have come 
to Gassy as she stepped into the carriage. The 
children of the neighborhood stared open- 
mouthed at the spectacle of Oddity Law going 
to drive in a fine carriage. For the moment she 
was a creature further removed from them than 
ever. No wonder she was queer, if she could 
have friends like the pretty little girl at her 
side. 

Gassy was quite conscious of the excitement 
they were causing, for even the women who 
lived near by, stood, arms akimbo, to stare after 
them. Gassy felt a strong desire for a hat as 
pretty as Eleanor’s ; hers was only a plain little 
sailor hat, but it was inconspicuous, and was really 
much more suitable than a gayer one, but Gassy 
did not know that. 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 125 

What a wonderful drive that was! Would 
Cassy ever forget it ? The dogwood was in blos- 
som, and wild flowers were beginning to spring 
up along the woodland roads. The child could 
not talk much, but she was very content to listen 
to Eleanor’s lively chatter, and when the shining 
carriage drew up again before her door, Jerry 
was there to help her out, and his look of pride 
as he glanced around at the astounded Billy Miles 
was good to Cassy. And then Eleanor drove off 
and Cassy saw her no more, but she was not for- 
gotten, and when the two again met it was not 
in that street, though of what was to come 
neither of them dreamed. 

It was one Saturday morning two or three weeks 
later when the glory of the lilies had departed 
and the pansies were dwindling in size, and only 
the geranium held its own, showing new blos- 
soms and new buds. Early summer was at hand ; 
the streets were resounding with cries of “ Ked- 
ripe strawberries 1 ” or “ Rags, bones, old bot- 
tles ! ” and the hand organs were out in force. 

Cassy had been busy all morning, for her 
mother had gone out upon an important errand, 
and Jerry was running his errands at the market. 


126 


Little Miss Oddity 

From time to time the little girl addressed a re- 
mark to the invisible Miss Morning-Glory, or to 
Flora, who stared at her with round black eyes 
from her corner. 

It being Saturday there was much to be done, 
and Gassy had been busy sweeping and dusting, 
and putting in order. Now she was a little tired 
and was resting in the big rocking-chair, swing- 
ing herself back and forth and chanting a little 
song to herself, which she made up as she went 
along : 

“ There once was a lily that died, 

And it was a lady, a lady. 

But it went to heaven one night 
And now it's an angel, an angel.” 

She sang the song very softly, looking over to 
where her pot of lilies stood. Now it showed 
only green leaves, but Gassy’s thoughts were busy 
in thinking of the lilies which had been and 
wondering whether they were now alive in 
another world. 

Suddenly the twelve o’clock whistles blew 
shrilly and the little girl jumped down from her 
chair. 

“ There, Flora,” she said, “ it is twelve o’clock 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 127 

and Jerry will be home soon, and there’ll be no 
dinner for him unless I get it. I wonder if I can. 
Mother said she couldn’t tell when she’d be back, 
so I’ll have to do the best I can, for Jerry will be 
so hungry ; he always is on Saturdays. I will 
see what there is in the safe.” She opened the 
door and looked at the various contents of the 
safe. 

There was a plate of cold corn- bread, little dish 
of beef stew, and a small, a very small plate of 
cheese. Cassy regarded these thoughtfully ; they 
did not look very promising, and she shut the safe 
door. 

“ I’ll try and make the fire. Flora,” she re- 
marked, “and then Miss Morning-Glory and I 
will get dinner. We are going to have — to have 
—chicken sandwiches, and green peas, and fried 
potatoes, and little long rolls, and strawberries 
and ice-cream and cake. Oh, yes, and first there 
will be soup in little cups.” She had her lunch- 
eon at Mrs. Dallas’s in mind. 

Going to the stove she took off the lids and 
looked in. She had never made a fire, for Jerry 
or her mother alwa3'^s did that, and she was a lit- 
tle dubious about the matter. Mrs. Law had to 


128 


Little Miss Oddity 

be very frugal in the matter of fuel so there was 
no coal to be put on, and Gassy thought she could 
easily manage the wood. So she stuffed in some 
paper and piled some sticks of wood on top of it, 
then shut it all up tight after lighting it. In a 
few minutes she looked at it, but it was dead out. 
She tried a second time, but with no better suc- 
cess. How in the world did her mother manage 
to do it so easily ? 

She stood looking at it, puzzled what to do 
next, then she remembered that some chips and 
light kindling must go in on top of the paper. 
She tried to get off some little slivers, and by so 
doing managed first to get a splinter in her fore- 
finger and then to cut a gash in her thumb. She 
was ready to cry, and indeed the tears were 
standing in her eyes, for the time was going and 
Jerry would be at home very soon. She could 
not bear to confess to him that she could not 
make fire, for Jerry, like all boys, was ready to 
tease. So she took off the lids again to make a 
last effort. 

Just then there was a knock at the door, and 
when it was opened there stood Rock Hardy. 

“ I came to tell you that your mother will not 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 129 

be home till late,” he told Cassy. He caught 
sight of her thumb tied up with a rag. “ Why, 
what a woebegone little face,” he said, “and 
your finger is bleeding. What have you been 
doing to yourself ? ” 

“ I’ve been trying to make a fire and it won’t 
burn.” Cassy’s voice was full of tears. “ And I 
can’t get this splinter out, and I cut myself try- 
ing to make kindling.” 

“ You poor little girl ! you have had trouble of 
your own. Here, let me see. I’ll get that 
splinter out, and tie up that thumb properly, and 
make the fire, too. Are you here all alone ? ” 

“Yes, you know Jerry has his market errands 
to do, and I wanted to have dinner ready by the 
time he came.” 

“ Poor little girl,” Kock repeated. “ First get 
me a fine needle and I’ll see about that splinter. 
I will try not to hurt you.” 

Cassy was very brave and stood quite still 
while Kock probed for the splinter which had 
gone in quite deep, but at last he triumphantly 
produced it sticking on the end of the needle, 
and after tying up her cut thumb, he tipped back 
her chin and looked into her eyes in which the 


130 


Little Miss Oddity 

tears were standing. She smiled and tried to 
Avink away the drops. 

“ You were a real soldier,” Lock told her, 
“ and I know it hurt like everything when I had 
to dig down after that splinter. Now for the 
fire. What’s wrong ? Why, you haven’t opened 
any of the drafts. See, you must pull out this 
one, and open this thing in front ; that Avill make 
a blaze. Now, there she goes. What are you 
going to cook ? ” 

Gassy looked doAvn a little abashed. 

“ I wasn’t going to cook anything. I was just 
going to Avarm up this stew and the corn-bread. 
You see mother didn’t expect to be gone so long 
and she didn’t know we wouldn’t have anything 
else for dinner.” She made her little excuses 
haltingly. 

Lock Avas silent for a moment. It seemed like 
such a poor little dinner to the boy accustomed 
to a lavish table. 

“ I wish you Avould invite me to dinner,” at 
last he said very gravely. 

Gassy cast a startled look at the remnant of 
stew. There Avould be enough corn-bread, but 
she knew Jerry’s appetite, and if Kock’s Avere 


How Gassy Tried to Make a Fire 131 

anything like it, some one would have to go 
hungry from the table. But she said shyly, 
“Won’t you stay and take dinner with us? 
Jerry will be glad to have you.” 

“ And how about Gassy ? ” 

The child cast another glance at the little sup- 
ply of food and Kock smiled. 

“I can make jolly good chocolate,” he said, 
“ and I am going to have some. Do you mind if 
we make a sort of picnic of this and let every 
fellow bring his own basket ? I think it would 
be a great lark to do that.” 

That seemed an easy way out of it, and Gassy, 
much relieved, nodded and smiled. It suited her 
exactly to call it a picnic. 

“You see,” Kock went on, “they’re talking 
over your mother’s affairs at our house, and 
father’s lawyer is there, and so you see it is no 
fun for me, and they’ll be glad to get me out of 
the way. So, if you will invite me to your pic- 
nic, I should like it of all things.” 

“ Oh, I do invite you, and here are the rocks, 
and over there by the window can be the woods, 
there, where the flowers are.” 

Rock laughed. 


1^2 Little Miss Oddity 

“ You have an imagination of your own,” he 
said. “ All right. I am going to shut up some 
of these drafts so the fire won’t all burn out. 
I’ll be back directly.” He went flying out and 
Gassy heard him going down the stairs, two or 
three steps at a time. Then she turned to her 
work of setting the table. 

“We are going to have a picnic. Flora,” she 
said. “ Isn’t it fun ? Won’t Jerry be surprised ? 

I must go into the other room and tell Miss 
Morning-Glory that she can stay to dinner. I 
was afraid there wasn’t going to be enough for 
her and all of us, too.” 

She bustled about and had everything in readi- 
ness by the time Lock returned. He carried a 
basket which he set down on the chest. 

“Now then,” he said, “let’s see if we are all 
right. There’s the milk for the chocolate,” pro- 
ducing a bottle; “here are some sardines. 
What’s this ? Oh, yes, the chocolate. Here’s a 
box of strawberries ; they looked tempting ;‘^ou 
can cap them while I make the chocolate. What 
is in this bag ? I forget. Oh, yes, that’s sugar, 
and this is cake and biscuits and stuff. " 
Nobody ever heard of a picnic without cake. 



“Cassy’s Eyes Opened Wider and Wider" 




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How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 135 

I borrowed the basket from the grocer at the 
corner.” 

Cassy’s eyes opened wider and wider while all 
this abundance was displayed, but she made her 
protest. 

“ But you have brought so much ; it is more 
than your share.” 

“ I don’t think so, but if I have, you will have 
to excuse me, for I am a new hand at marketing. 
Besides, you furnish the picnic grounds ; all these 
rocks and that grove over there, and the fire and 
the dishes. I think when you come to look at it 
that I have furnished the least.” Which state- 
ment satisfied Cassy, who went to work to cap 
the strawberries while Eock set the milk to boil 
for the chocolate. 

They were in the midst of these performances 
when Jerry came in. 

“Hallo!” he cried, as he saw this unusual 
state of aflPairs. “ Where’s mother ? ” 

“ She is at our house,” replied Rock, “ or at 
least she was. I left her there, and father was 
talking for all he was worth to the lawyer, so I 
reckon they will enter that suit, and I do hope 
you will win.” 


136 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Gassy. “ I forgot to ask you 
if you knew anything about it ; we thought that 
was what mother was going for.” 

“ Yes, I asked father, and he said it was too 
early to tell yet but there was a good prospect of 
your getting something. I sa}’’, old fellow,” he 
gave Jerry a friendly slap on the back, “I have 
invited myself to a picnic lunch to celebrate the 
event. They are glad to have me out of the way 
on this occasion and Gassy was so good as to ask 
me to stay and dine with you.” He gave Gassy 
an amused look as he spoke and she looked 
down, remembering how very unready she was 
to invite him. 

“ My, that’s a jolly good feed,” cried Jerry, his 
eyes roaming over the table. “ I am as hungry 
as a bear.” 

“ I’m glad of that,” said Kock, “ for I am too. 
I could eat every mouthful of that stew.” 

“ I wish you would,” said Jerry, frankly. “ I’m 
tired of it ; I’d a lot rather have the sardines.” 

“ All right, it’s a go,” said Hock. “ I hope j^ou 
don’t want any. Gassy. Wouldn’t you rather 
have the sardines, too ? then I can have all the 
stew.” 


.V 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire* 137 

Gassy confessed that she Avould rather, and 
Eock drew the dish of stew to his side of the 
table. 

“Did you have a good day, Jerry?” Cassy 
asked. 

“ Not very ; I only made thirty cents.” 

Kock looked at him. “ To think of this little 
fellow helping to support his family,” was his 
thought, and he gave Jerry an admiring glance. 

“ That’s more than I ever earned in one day,” 
he said, soberly. 

“ Oh, but you don’t have to,” Jerry replied. 
“ I reckon I wouldn’t either, if I were you.” 

“Never mind, old fellow,” Kock went on, 
“ you’ll be twice the man for it. I tell you when 
a fellow shows what he is willing to do and that 
he isn’t going to shirk, it goes a great way. 
John McClure told father about your insisting 
upon doing something to pay for that little 
measly geranium you got for Cassy, and ever 
since then father’s been keen to see to this busi- 
ness of your mother’s. John McClure is a fine 
man. Father says he is one of the most intelli- 
gent fellows he knows. He is a Scotchman by 
birth and is well educated, but he had some 


138 . Little Miss Oddity- 

trouble with his people at home and came to 
America to make his living any way that he 
could. He’d always been fond of gardening, so 
he applied for the place as gardener with us, and 
has been there ever since we’ve lived here. I 
believe he will come into some property some 
day, and we’ll be sorry to part with him, I tell 
you.” 

“ I just love him,” said Gassy. 

“I think he’s a brick,” said Jerry. “Haven’t 
you always lived in that house ? ” 

“No, indeed, only for a few years. It really 
belongs to old Mr. Dallas, but he and his wife are 
obliged to go south every year, and so when my 
mother and Mr. Heath Dallas were married, his 
father wanted them to take the place and keep it 
from running down. So that suited everybody, 
and we’ve been living there two years. Mother 
loves it and so do I, and I believe John McClure 
does, too.” 

“I should think he would,” Gassy remarked 
fervently. 

“Father would like to build a little house in 
the corner of the garden for John, but he says, 
no, he has no one to keep house for him and that 


How Cassy Tried to Make a Fire 139 

some day he will have a place of his own; I 
think he means to be a florist and have green- 
houses and such things ; he reads about gardens 
and plants, and all that sort of thing, all the 
time.” 

“ I should think that would be the finest busi- 
ness,” said Jerry. “I tell you flowers sell for a 
big price sometimes.” 

“I know they do, especially in midwinter. 
Anyhow everything John puts in the ground 
seems to grow, and I should think he’d make a 
success of that business, for he’s what father calls 
a ‘ canny Scot,’ though he’s not a bit stingy. By 
the way, I heard my father ask if you had any 
relatives ; I suppose you haven’t, have you ? ” 

“ No,” Jerry told him, “at least not very near 
ones. Father had no brothers or sisters, and 
mother’s people lived in England. Her father 
and mother died when she was little, and she 
came over here with her aunt.” 

“Oh, I see,” said Rock. He had wondered 
why Mrs. Law had been left with no one to give 
her a helping hand. 



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THE SUMMER LONG 


i 



CHAPTER YIII 


THE SUMMER LONG 

Having satisfied his appetite to the point of 
discomfort, Jerry pushed back his plate with a 
sigh, shaking his head when Gassy asked if he 
would have more strawberries. 

“ Then we’ll save them and the rest of the 
things for mother,” she said with a satisfied air. 
“Unless,” she looked at Rock with sudden mis- 
giving, “ unless you meant to carry them home.” 

Rock laughed. 

“ Not I, if you please. I’ve no notion of doing 
any such thing. I am too lazy to move and the 
thought of having to burden myself with a 
basket is too much for me. I will help you to 
wipe the dishes, though, and Jerry can put them 
away.” 

“Do you really mean,” said Jerry, slowly, 
having been in a brown study, “that the rail- 
road people will pay mother some money ? ” 

“ I think so,” Rock told him, “ but one can’t 
say positively. Father says it is a very good 
143 


144 


Little Miss Oddity 

case for damages, but it has been so long now 
that perhaps they will not want to pay the 
whole amount that is claimed, but he is pretty 
sure they will compromise, and he knows what 
he’s talking about.” 

Gassy did not exactly understand all this, but 
she knew it meant good fortune for her mother ; 
that hope of which she had spoken on Easter 
Day, and she wondered if it could mean as much 
as that they could have a cottage with morning- 
glories over the porch, and if they could move 
away and be rid of Billy Miles forever. 

As if in answer to her thought Rock asked 
her: “Have you seen anything of our friend 
Billy Miles lately ? ” 

“ Our friend,” Gassy repeated in scorn. “ I’d 
like to see myself calling him my friend.” 

“AVell, you’ll get rid of him soon, I hope,” 
Rock told her. 

“ Do you really think so ? ” Gassy exclaimed. 
“ I hope we shall, and, oh, I’d like to get rid of 
a good many things.” 

“ What, for instance ? ” 

“ Oh, most of the schoolgirls, and this horrid 
noisy street and Mrs. Boyle’s parrot. I wish I 


The Summer Long 14^ 

could go to another school and move into another 
street, and never see the parrot again.” 

“Why, don’t you like the parrot? I think 
she is very funny.” 

Gassy shook her head. 

“ She is a bad bird, and says things in such a 
wicked way like old Mrs. Finnegan, and they 
laugh just alike. Polly bites, too, and is so 
cross. Sometimes I sit on the fence and look at 
her and she looks at me and says : ‘ You’re bad ! 
You’re bad!’ and I say, ‘I am not as bad as 
you. You are bad ! ’ And then she laughs as if 
she liked to be bad. I believe she has a black 
heart,” Gassy concluded, soberly. 

Kock laughed. 

“ The poor Polly ! I don’t believe she is as 
wicked as you make out, but I’ve no doubt but 
by this time next year you will be far away, 
from here.” 

“ Oh, let’s pretend we will,” cried Gassy, stop- 
ping in her work of clearing off the dishes. 
“ You say what you think we’ll be doing, and 
I’ll say, and Jerry can.” 

“ That reminds me of a play we have some- 
times, where one begins a story and one after 


146 Little Miss Oddity 

another goes on with it till it is very funny by 
the time it is finished. Here goes ; Next year 
at this time you will be living in a pretty little 
country town.” 

“Where?” asked Gassy, fishing with a fork 
for the soap in her pan of hot water. 

“Why, of course in the same town where 
Eleanor lives.” 

“ How lovely ! Go on.” 

“And you’ll live in a nice little white 
cottage ” 

“ With morning-glories over the porch.” 

“ Yes, and roses. I think I know just where 
it is.” 

“ Oh, I wish I did ! ” Gassy dropped her mop 
and clasped her soapy hands. 

“ And you’ll have a dog and a cat.” 

“And chickens,” Jerry broke in. 

“ And a garden,” Gassy added, eagerly. 

“And pigeons, maybe,” from Jerry. 

“And we’ll have picnics whenever we want 
them,” Eock went on. 

“We?” 

“ Yes ; you’re not going to leave me out. I go 
up there every summer, if you please.” 


The Summer Long 147 

“ Oh, do you ? ” 

“That’s fine,” said Jerry. “Oh, pshaw! I 
almost thought it was going to be really. Cass, 
where shall I put the milk ?” 

“On the window ledge, outside; it is cooler 
there than anywhere else.” 

“ Gee whiz 1 ” exclaimed Kock, looking at his 
watch. “ It’s after three and I promised George 
Reed that I’d be there by half-past. I must 
travel. Good-bye, Gassy. Good-bye, Jerry ; 
I’ve had a bang up time.” He lost no time in 
getting away, gazed after admiringly by both 
the children, Jerry declaring that he was “ hot 
stuff,” and Gassy saying : “ I think he’s like a 
real Prince of Wales.” 

It was late when their mother returned, tired 
out, and after Gassy had bustled around and had 
set before her the remains of the feast, she told 
them that so far all seemed very promising, but 
that such matters could not be settled at once. 
Yet Gassy saw that there was a brighter smile 
on her mother’s face and that she did not turn 
at once to that hateful pile of sewing. 

Yet true it was that before midsummer they 
had all seen the last of the noisy street, and had 


148 Little Miss Oddity 

turned their backs upon Billy Miles, Mrs. Boyle 
and the wicked parrot, for about the first of 
July, just as Gassy and Jerry were mourning the 
fact that the Dallas family w^ould soon be going 
away, and their house would be closed, there 
came a call from Mrs. Dallas herself which re- 
sultedpn a most delightful arrangement. 

“ We are going to leave the city for the sum- 
mer,” she said to Mrs. Law,“ and although here- 
tofore we have always shut up the house, yet this 
year Mr. Dallas will have to be here more or less, 
and it would be so much more comfortable for 
him if he could come to his own home when he 
is obliged to be in the city ; so I have been think- 
ing how very nice it would be if you would con- 
sent to take charge of the house during the sum- 
mer months. I had thought of renting it, but 
we should feel so much better satisfied to have 
some one we know in it, and if 3^ou would kindly 
see that Mr. Dallas is made comfortable when he 
comes to town, I should feel that we w’^ould be 
quits in the matter of rent. John McClure has 
consented to sleep in the coachman’s quarters at 
the stable; we take our horses with us, you 
know, and I think John would be mightily 


' The Summer Long 149 

pleased if you would board him ; it might help 
out with your table expenses if you could do 
that. The back rooms are really the most 
agreeable in summer, for they look out on the 
garden, and the porch at that side is very cool. 
We always find a breeze there, if there is any 
stirring. Do you think you could arrange to 
come ? ” 

Mrs. Law glanced at Gassy, who was looking 
thin and pale. 

“ Oh, mother ! ” cried the child in an imploring 
tone. 

“You would like it, wouldn’t you. Gassy?” 
said Mrs. Dallas, smiling at her. 

“ Better than anything,” said Gassy. 

“I know it is a responsibility,” Mrs. Dallas 
went on, “ and that one always feels more or less 
uneasy if he or she is given charge of another’s 
belongings, but you need use only the rooms at 
the back of the house, and I am sure everything 
will be in much better condition than if the house 
were left closed. Mr. Dallas will only sleep there 
when he is in town, so you will not have to think 
of meals for him, and, oh yes, whenever you think 
there is need of extra cleaning you are at liberty 


1^0 Little Miss Oddity 

to call upon Martha Collins ; I think you may 
need her once in a while. She understands that, 
for she is paid half her wages while we are away, 
and it is an understood thing that she holds her- 
self in readiness to do anything we exact of 
her. John will see to it that the pavements are 
kept clean ; there is a boy who comes to do that. 
John says he wouldn’t agree to having any other 
children in and out of his garden, so you and 
Jerry may consider yourselves complimented,” 
she said, turning to Gassy. 

The upshot of the whole matter was that Mrs. 
Law agreed to accept Mrs. Dallas’s offer, and in 
a few days the Law family found a summer home 
at the old Dallas place, with John as their boarder. 
Gassy could scarcely believe her ears that first 
morning when she was awakened by the robins 
whistling in the cherry-trees, early, so early, be- 
fore any one was up. She had a little room next 
her mother’s ; both rooms opened on a porch and 
overlooked the garden. Gassy slipped out of bed 
and tiptoed to the Avindow. She could see the 
robins getting their share of the cherries before 
any one else should gather them, and then her 
eyes fell upon a Avonderful sight just under her 


The Summer Long 

window. Those were morning-glories surely, 
blue and pink and purple and pearly white, 
opening now as the light touched them. 

“ Oh !” whispered the child in ecstasy. “ You 
darlings ! ” She reached out her hand and drew 
a bit of the vine towards her, gazing into the 
frail cups and touching with gentle finger the 
curling tendrils. 

She was so happy that her eyes filled with 
tears, and she stood there whispering to herself 
till she heard her mother stir, and then she 
scampered back to bed again, but not to sleep ; 
the robins were too lively, and when in the 
course of an hour she heard the click of a grass- 
mower in the garden, she jumped up and dressed 
herself, then groped her way down-stairs and let 
herself out the door into the morning sunshine. 

“ Hello ! ” cried John, looking up from his 
grass-cutting. “You are an early bird.” 

“ I’m not as early as the robins.” 

“ No, you’d have to get up betimes to get ahead 
of them, little robbers that they are.” 

“ Aren’t there enough cherries for them to have 
some ? ” Gassy asked anxiously. 

John smiled. 


152 Little Miss Oddity 

“ That depends upon how many you want for 
yourself. Do you like cherries ? ” 

Gassy thought for a minute. 

“ I don’t believe I ever tasted any. Mother 
didn’t think they were good for us, and she never 
let us eat them.” 

“ Well, I declare,” said John. “ But I don’t 
blame her, I doubt if any you ever saw Avere fit 
to eat. There is a muckle of difference between 
cherries picked right off the tree and those you 
see on the fruit stand at your corner. As soon as 
I get through this laAvn I’ll get you some. By 
to-morrow they ought to be picked, anyhow.” 

Gassy looked up at the red and white waxy 
fruit. She thought it looked very pretty among 
the green leaves. 

“ What a good time the robins were having, to 
be sure. She thought it might be great fun to 
be a robin and go flying, flying among the trees. 
They did seem to be enjoying themselves so 
much that the little girl felt sorry that the cher- 
ries must be picked, and they be left without 
any, but she remembered that the cherries would 
not last very long anyhow, and that the robins 
would have their share first. Up and down the 


153 


The Summer Long 

lawn John went, while Gassy sat on the step and 
watched him and the robins, and gazed at the 
garden before her. 

The best of the blossoming was over, but there 
were a number of flowers still to be seen ; mari- 
golds, and larkspurs, and snap-dragons, phlox 
and mignonette and monthly roses, not to men- 
tion the geraniums. Every time John came to 
the end of his line he would stop to have a pleas- 
ant word, and although he declared that he 
wasn’t getting along very fast, it was evident 
that he enjoyed Gassy’s company. 

After a while the grass was cut and lay in 
sweet smelling heaps upon the lawn. 

“That will make quite a little pile of hay,” 
said John, “ and there’s nothing smells sweeter. 
Gome along now and we’ll get those cherries.” 

Bringing a ladder he placed it against the tree 
and soon had climbed within reach of the fruit- 
laden branches. He tossed a cluster down to 
Gassy. 

“ Try ’em,” he said. 

Gassy immediately popped one into her mouth. 

“ Like that ? Pretty good, isn’t it ? ” 

“ It’s delicious,” Gassy returned. 


154 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Think you’d like to come up here and pick 
some for yourself? Afraid to try the ladder? 
It’s pretty steady.” 

“ I’d love to do that.” 

“Come along, then.” John settled himself 
into a crotch of the tree and watched her ascend. 
She came lightly and with perfect confidence. 
“That’s right,” he said. “You weren’t a bit 
scared, were you ? ” 

“ ]S^o, indeed.” 

He put out his arm and drew her to a safe 
seat near him. “ There now, help yourself,” he 
told her. “ You can run a race with the robins 
if you like.” 

Gassy laughed, and then for the first time in 
all her life she gathered fruit from its own tree. 
After awhile she saw that her mother had come 
down and that Jerry was looking for her. She 
gave a merry glance at John. 

“ Don’t tell him where we are ; let him find us.” 

“Gassy, Gassy,” called Jerry. 

“ Here I am,” came the answer. 

Jerry looked mystified. He hunted the garden 
over, and finally spied the ladder leaning against 
the tree. 


The Summer Long 153' 

“ Oho I ” he cried peering up into the green ; 
and just then a bunch of ripe cherries came pelt- 
ing against his upturned face and a merry laugh 
sounded from above. 

“ Want to come up ? ” said John. Didn’t he ? 
Could any one imagine that he didn’t ? However, 
John warned him: “Better wait till we come 
down. There’ll be most too many in this tree, 
I’m afraid.” 

Bearing his hat full of cherries he came down 
the ladder and Gassy followed. Then Jerry was 
given permission to go up. This was a treat he 
had not expected, to be allowed the freedom of a 
cherry tree full of ripe cherries. What bliss ! 

The boy gave a sigh of great content as he 
settled himself astride a huge bough. 

“Don’t eat too many,” John warned, “ and come 
down when I call you,” Jerry promised; he 
valued John’s good opinion, and moreover had 
respect for his authority, and he was not going 
to do anything to alter the present pleasant state 
of things. 

Gassy had climbed down safely and stood below, 
her eyes fixed on Jerry. 

“ Isn’t it splendid ? ” she called up to him. 


156 Little Miss Oddity 

“ I should say so,” came the answer, rather 
indistinctly by reason of a mouthful of cherries. 

“Here, little one,” said John, “suppose you 
take these in to your mother,” and he poured the 
hatful of shining fruit into Cassy’s outstretched 
apron. She ran lightly across the freshly cut 
grass to the kitchen where her mother was 
getting breakfast. 

“Just see! Just see!” cried the child, “I’ve 
been up the tree, and the robins were there too, 
and John went up and Jerry is there now. I 
picked cherries, real cherries, from the tree my- 
self.” The delight in her face made her mother 
stop to kiss her. 

“ Breakfast is ready,” she told her. “ Call 
Jerry and Mr. McClure. And Jerry regretfully 
was obliged to come down. “You shall help me 
to pick them to-morrow,” John told him, and this 
prospect was enough to satisfy him. 


NEWS 






CHAPTER IX 


NEWS 

Altogether that was a wonderful summer 
which the Laws spent at the old Dallas place. 
To be free to wander in that enchanting garden ; 
to hear a cool breeze whispering in the leafy tops 
of the trees ; and when it was stifling hot in the 
streets to be able to sit on a porch overlooking a 
green lawn; to help John to weed and to water 
the flowers ; to learn from him all sorts of useful 
things concerning plants ; to watch the morning- 
glories open and shut in the morning, and the 
moon-flowers at night; all this was like a beauti- 
ful dream, and Gassy wished the summer would 
never come to an end. She dreaded the proba- 
ble removal back to Orchard Street, next door 
to the parrot and old Mrs, Finnegan and Billy 
Miles; she dreaded the girls who at school 
looked askance at her and called her Miss 
Oddity. 

“We don’t want to go back, do we?” she 
*59 


i6o Little Miss Oddity 

said to Flora. “ We’d like to live here in this 
garden forever’n ever.” 

But one day Mr. Dallas came. He had been 
with them several times before, had stayed over 
night, and had given a pleasant word to each 
one, but this time he called Mrs. Law from the 
back porch and they both went up-stairs to the 
sitting-room. Then Gassy heard the voice of 
another man and after a while Mr. Dallas and 
this other person came down-stairs and went out 
together. Cass}^ listened a few minutes, and 
then she ran to find her mother. She found her 
standing by a table ; she was gazing half-dazed 
at a piece of paper in her hand. 

“ What is it, mother ? ” Gassy asked, touching 
her gently. 

She looked down at the child with a little 
wistful smile. “ It is a check from the railroad 
people,” she said. 

“ Oh ! Oh ! Are we rich now ? Shall we 
have nice clothes and a pretty new home ? Are 
we as rich as Mr. Dallas ? ” 

“ Far from it, dear. They are not willing to 
pay what we demanded and the lawyer at last 
thought it best that we should compromise, so it 


News 


i6i 


is much less than I had hoped for at first, but it 
is so much better than nothing that I am very 
thankful.” 

“ Shall we have to go back to Orchard 
Street ? ” 

“No, I think not,” her mother answered, 
slowly. 

“ And shall you have to sew hard all the 
time ? ” 

“I cannot tell yet what I shall do. I must 
have time to think it all over. I am very glad 
to have this dear quiet place as a refuge until I 
decide how best to take my place in the world. 
But I am forgetting my duties already ; I must 
go and see about dinner.” 

“ Jerry lighted the gas stove, and I put the 
water to boil. Jerry got the potatoes ready, 
too, and I set the table, so that much is 
done.” 

“ Good children.” 

“ May I run and tell Jerry and John ? ” 

“Yes, I don’t object, but you must not stay. 
I need my little maid about dinner-time.” 

“ I know. I won’t stay.”' She started to leave 
the room, but paused with her hand on the knob. 


i 62 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Mother, what does entail mean ? To put a tail 
on something ? ” ' 

“Yes, in a certain sense. But what do you 
know about entails ? ” 

“John was telling me something; it’s his 
secret ; he’ll have some money, too, some day, 
because it’s entailed. I can’t quite understand 
about it, but he is quite sure.” 

“Well, run along, and I will explain to you 
some other time.” 

Between John McClure and Cassy there ex- 
isted the greatest possible friendship. Here was 
some one who understood the little girl; who 
could tell her stories of trees and flowers, of the 
insects that helped and those that hurt, of the 
birds and the beasts, and who could be a most 
fascinating companion when he wanted to be. 
The Scotchman was not a great talker except 
when he and Cassy were together ; he was usu- 
ally rather reticent with other persons and espe- 
cially regarding his former life, giving only a 
hint of what it had been, but he told Cassy 
stories of his boyhood and the two spent much 
time together. Jerry was often with them and 
helped in various ways, but he was not always 



‘What Do You Think? News! News!” 



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News 165 

contented to remain within the walls of the 
garden and very often would seek out his school- 
mates for a good game of some sort. 

It being noon time Jerry was now at home, and 
Gassy found him with John in the garden. The 
summer was passing and John was getting ready 
for the fall ; transplanting, cutting down, thin- 
ning out, to make room for chrysanthemums, 
asters, dahlias and cosmos. Behind the hedge 
which ran along one side the lawn Gassy could 
see John’s broad back and she ran down the 
graveled path towards him. 

“ What do you think ? ” she cried. “ What do 
you think ? News ! News ! ” 

Jerry dropped the trowel he was holding and 
John straightened himself up. 

“ What is it ? ” asked the latter. “ Has your 
family of spiders come forth from that fuzzy ball 
you have been watching so long, or has your pet 
mouse learned to dance ? ” 

Gassy laughed. 

“ No, better than that. The railroad people have 

paid mother ; but ” she looked at Jerry, “ we’re 

not rich at all. Mother says it isn’t so very much, 
yet it is very nice to have a little, isn’t it ? ” 


i66 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ Humph ! ” responded John. “ It never rains 
but it pours ; I’ve had news myself.” He drew 
a letter from his pocket and looked at the address 
on the envelope. 

Gassy went up to him and stood on tiptoe to 
whisper : “ Is it about the entail ? ” 

John put his arm around her and gave her a 
hug. 

“You sly little lass, do you remember that? 
Yes, it is about that and some other things. I’ve 
got to pack up and travel as soon as I can.” 

“ Qh ! ” Gassy looked very sorrowful. “ Must 
you go soon ? Before we leave here ? ” 

“ I think I shall have to go as soon as I can 
get off. I have yet to see Mr. Dallas and get a 
man settled in my place, and then I shall take 
the first steamer.” v. 

“ Shall you stay forever ? ” Gassy’s little hand 
crept into his big one. 

“No, indeed ; I shall come back as soon as I 
can get my affairs settled. I have become a good 
American.” 

“ Like my father,” said Gassy proudly. “ Shall 
you come back here to Mr. Dallas ?” 

“No, I hope to have a place of my own. I 


News 167 

wish — but there’s time enough to think of 
that.” 

“ I must go in now,” Cassy said. “ I promised 
mother I wouldn’t stay, for she wants me. So 
much is happening that it made me forget,” 

“ It never rains but it pours,” said John, “ but 
it is queer that all this should come at once. 
What do you think about it. Master Jerry ?” 

“ I think it is too bad that you have to go 
away, and I think it is too bad that those rail- 
road people didn’t give mother all that she ought 
to have. Aren’t we going to have the cottage 
and the garden and all that, Cassy ? ” 

She shook her head. 

“I’m afraid not. Mother doesn’t know yet. 
She’s got to think about it,” She spoke in a lit- 
tle old-fashioned way that made John smile. 

Jerry looked disappointed. 

“ Oh, pshaAV ! I’m disgusted,” he said. “ I 
thought we’d have all we wanted. I say it’s 
pretty hard not to get it after all this time we 
have had to do without.” 

“ It’s pretty hard not to get a lot of things,” 
John remarked ; “ but maybe they’ll come after a 
while. You’re young yet, my lad.” He turned 


i68 


Little Miss Oddity 

back to his work and Gassy returned to the house 
to find dinner ready. 

“ John’s had some news, too,” Gassy announced , 
as they all sat down to the table. 

“ I hope it is good news,” said Mrs. Law, smi- 
ling at John across the table. 

“It’s good and bad,” returned John slowly. 

“ I’ve had word that my grandfather has died, 
but I come in for the property he left.” 

Mrs. Law looked up a little surprised. 

“ How strange ! ” she exclaimed. “ I have had 
such news, too ; the letter was sent to my former 
address, and came just a minute ago.” 

“That is a coincidence,” returned John. 

“ Is it Grandfather Kennedy who is dead ? ” 
Jerry asked. “ Why, mother ” 

John dropped his knife and covered his face 
with one hand. 

Mrs. Law sat gazing at him. 

. “ It can’t be ; it can’t be ! ” she whispered, half 
rising from her chair. 

“Will you tell me 3’’our maiden name?” said 
John, in a queer, strained voice. 

“ Kennedy was my maiden name,” Mrs. Law 
answered. 


News 169 

“Where were you born?” John asked, in the 
same queer way. 

“ In Glasgow, but my parents both died when 
I was little more than a baby, and my mother’s 
sister, who lived in England, adopted me, and I 
generally was known by her name of Matthews. 
She came to America when I was about ten years 
old, and I married here.” 

John leaned across the table and held out a 
shaking hand. 

“ Little Mysie ! Little Mysie ! Can it be my 
little sister, and that all this time I never knew 
it?” 

“ Yes, yes, but your name is McClure, not Ken- 
nedy.” 

“ It is Kennedy. I quarreled with my grand- 
father, who wanted me to marry a wealthy 
woman, and because I chose the dearest girl in 
the world who could win no favor from him be- 
cause she was poor, he refused to see me again. 
I went to Australia, and there my wife died a 
year later. I could not go back to my old home. 
Grandfather had been too hard, too unyielding, 
and there were some reasons that he should not 
know where I was, and so I changed my name 


lyo Little Miss Oddity 

when I came to America, for I did not know to 
what desperate straits I might come, though I 
meant to be an honest man, no matter how poor.” 

“ John, dear John ! ” Mrs. Law was by his 
side. “ My own brother ! and we have been 
strangers all these years, and yet have been 
seeing each other every day for three months. 
What a strange discovery ! ” 

Gassy left her seat and went around to John’s 
side. 

“ Are you my really, truly uncle ? ” 

“ I am, my lass, as near as I can make out. 
It seems straight enough. Your mother there 
was Mysie Kennedy, and that was the name of 
my little sister that I’d not seen since she left 
for the States. She was brought up by my 
mother’s sister, my aunt Agnes Matthews, and 
I was left with my grandfather, Alexander 
Kennedy. If those facts fit, you are my own 
little niece. I wrote to my aunt when I first 
came to the States, but the letter came back to 
me from the dead-letter office. I was not spe- 
cially proud of my position in the world and so 
I did not do anything more to discover my rela- 
tives. I did not know my sister had married, 


News 


171 

so how could I tell that Mrs. Jerrold Law was 
ray sister ? ” He smiled at Cassy’s mother. 

Gassy looked at Jerry very steadily. 

“ I think if Jerry were to go away for years 
and years, I wouldn’t forget how he looked and 
I would know him anywhere.” 

Mrs. Law shook her head. 

“I don’t believe you would. Do you think 
your uncle looks much like the picture of your 
mother’s little brother Jock, which you have so 
often seen ? ” 

“ Oh, no.” Gassy scanned her uncle’s face 
wonderingly, and shook her head. 

“ And the little fat roly-poly girl whom I re- 
member as my sister was very unlike the lady 
who is your mother,” said John. 

“ I see,” said Gassy. “ I suppose you couldn’t 
know each other, but I can’t believe yet that I 
would ever forget Jerry or that I wouldn’t know 
him a hundred years from now.” 

“I think you’d all better eat your dinners,” 
said Jerry, nothing if not practical, his plate 
being the only one that was empty. 

The others laughed, but there was not much 
dinner eaten that day by any one, for even Jerry 


172 Little Miss Oddity 

was so excited as to have less appetite than 
usual. 

“ To think, Jerry,” Gassy remarked later, 
“ that we have a relation, a real relation, and 
I’d rather have him than any one else in the 
whole world. May we call you Uncle John?” 

May you? You’d better not call me any- 
thing else.” 

“And are you going to be named Kennedy 
now ?” 

“Just for the present. I’ll keep the McClure, 
but when I come back to you it will be with my 
own name. Wouldn’t you like to go with me, 
Mysie ? ” he asked his sister, 

“ And leave my children ? ” 

“ Why not take them ? ” 

Mrs. Law shook her head. 

“No, I think that would not be wise at pres- 
ent. I think we’d better stay here and make a 
home for you to come back to.” 

“ Oh ! Oh ! ” cried both the children, “ And 
will you always live with us ? ” 

“ Indeed I will if you’ll not get tired of me.” 
He turned to his sister, “ The entail ends with 
me, and I shall dispose of the property at once. 


News 


173 

I am told there is a customer for it, the man 
who has been managing the place for grand- 
father all these years. I have no wish to live in 
a place where there are only unhappy memories.” 

“ I am afraid you had rather a miserable time 
of it in your boyhood, you poor John,” said Mrs. 
Law. 

“It wasn’t a particularly lively one. How- 
ever, that is all past now. Grandfather no doubt 
thought he was doing right. In his severe way 
of looking at life and his strict ideas of what a 
young man should do; what he called my dis- 
obedience was a very terrible thing to him. He 
could not understand that I was a man grown 
and that I had a right to marry the girl I loved.” 

He gave a long sigh and rose from his chair. 
Jerry followed him out into the garden. There 
was much to learn, and Gassy, divided between 
her desire to go with her uncle and her wish to 
do her duty, by staying to help her mother, 
stared after the two as they went off. 

She chattered like a magpie while they were 
washing the dishes, and she heard many things 
which had never been told her before. What a 
strange day it had been ! She felt as if she were 


174 Little Miss Oddity 

living in a story-book, but she stayed by her 
mother till the last dish was put away, and then 
she was left alone while her mother went up- 
stairs to write some important letters. 


PLANS 


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CHAPTER X 


PLANS 

After looking out upon the garden from 
AYhere she stood upon the porch, Gassy decided 
that she would like to be by herself for a while 
and think over all that had been taking place. 
So she stole down the long path to a little corner 
sheltered by trees on one side and by tall bushes 
on the other. 

Into this little hiding-place she crept and lay 
down with face upturned towards the leaves and 
branches overhead. There was an empty nest 
among the branches, and there were all sorts of 
creeping, crawling things at hand to amuse and 
interest her. A fuzzy caterpillar, with a funny 
face, looked over the side of a leaf at her ; a 
nimble spider spun a web from twig to twig ; a 
busy colony of ants near by ran back and forth 
as if the affairs of the nation had to be settled. 
John had told her many things about the ants, 
and he had been as interested as she in a family 
of spiders. 

177 


178 Little Miss Oddity 

“ And he is my uncle. Think of it,” she said, 
winking her eyes at the caterpillar. “I don’t 
suppose you care about your relations because 
you have to have such lots and lots of them, but 
I care. You couldn’t have as nice a one as my 
Uncle John if you tried. Uncle John, Uncle 
John ; how nice that sounds. What will Kock 
say? And Eleanor, and oh dear, there’s so 
much I haven’t heard about yet. I wish they’d 
hurry up and tell me. I wish little girls could 
hear every blessed thing that grown people talk 
about. I wonder if my mouse is at home. I 
think I’ll go and see.” 

She jumped up and ran to the tool-house. 
After opening the door softly she stood inside 
whistling and chirruping in a gentle way, and 
after some patient waiting she saw a little mouse 
come creeping out. Then she gently opened a 
small tin box and took some crumbs from it ; 
these she held in her hand, crouching on the 
ground as she did so, and after a little while the 
mouse came nearer, and finally crept upon her 
hand, eating the crumbs confidently and stopping 
once in a while to look at her with round bright 
eyes. She heard the whir, whir of the lawn- 


Plans 


179 


mower outside, and then the sound stopped and 
she lifted her head to listen, for she heard a voice 
say : “ Where is Cassy ? I can’t find her any- 

where.” 

The little mouse paused in its meal, and as a 
shadow darkened the door it leaped from Cassy’s 
hand and went scudding across the floor, but 
not before it was seen by some one who was 
entering. 

“Well, Miss Oddity,” cried a voice. “I 
might know you’d be off hiding somewhere 
playing with a mouse or a spider or some- 
thing.” 

Cassy was so happy that she did not resent 
this but replied, laughing: “Well, Miss Morn- 
ing-Glory, you’ve scared my mouse away, you 
, see.” 

“ Yes, I am sorry I did. I wish I had crept up 
softly to see you feed it. How tame it is, but 
ugh ! I don’t believe I’d like a mouse crawling 
on me.” And Eleanor stepped in, looking very 
pretty in her white dress and broad-brimmed 
hat. “I came down with papa this morning,” 
she said. “ Mamma and I came, and Kock and 
Uncle Heath. Mamma and papa have gone 


i8o Little Miss Oddity 

back, and I am going to stay all night, 
for I have to go to the dentist’s in the morn- 
ing.” 

“ Are you going to stay here ? ” 

“ Yes, if your mother doesn’t mind.” 

“ Oh, I know she won’t, and I shall be so glad. 
Will Kock stay, too ? ” 

“ Yes. He is down town now and will be here 
after a while.” 

“ Have you heard the news ? ” asked Gassy. 

“What? About the mone}^ ? Yes, but isn’t 
it too bad that it isn’t more? Papa says that 
Uncle Heath did his best, but he was only one 
against many, and that it was the best that could 
be done.” 

“ It is much better than nothing,” said Gassy, 
repeating her mother’s words. “But I didn’t 
mean that news so much as the other about — but 
never mind now, let’s wait till Kock comes, and 
then I can tell you both. It’s the most of a 
s’prise you ever heard ; it’s just wonderful.” 

“You might tell me first. I won’t tell 
Rock.” 

Gassy shook her head. 

“Ho, I must wait.” She could be very deter- 


Plans l8i 

mined sometimes, and Eleanor soon saw that 
there was no use in insisting. 

“ You are not going back to Orchard Street, I 
hope,” said the latter. 

“ No, indeed, mother says we are not.” 

“ I know something, too,” said Eleanor. 
“ Aunt Dora isn’t coming back to the city till 
November, so you can stay here till then if you 
want to.” 

“ That is more good news, but if Oh, 

dear, I wish Eock would come. I can hardly 
keep my secret.” 

“I wish you’d just make out I’m Miss Morn- 
ing-Glory, and then you’d be sure to tell me.” 

“ I don’t see so much of Miss Morning-Glory 
nowadays,” Gassy confessed. “ I have so many 
things to do, and I think she’s in the country a 
great deal in the summer.” She spoke very 
seriously, and Eleanor laughed. 

“You funny girl! You are as funny as 
Bubbles. I wish you could see Bubbles, our 
little colored girl, you know'; and I wish — oh, 
dear, I was so in hopes you were going to have a 
cottage near us. Eock told me he had picked 
one out for you.” 


i 82 


Little Miss Oddity 

“ Tell me about it.” 

“ Well, it stands by itself just a little way out 
of our town. It is a country town, you know, 
with trees and gardens, and there are woods very 
near the cottage, and it has a big field next to it. 
There’s a little brook runs through the field and 
on into the woods.” 

“Oh,” sighed Gassy, “how lovely! Is it a 
little, little cottage ? ” 

“ Not so very, very little ; it has eight rooms, I 
think.” 

“ I’m afraid that’s much too big ; but it’s nice 
to hear about it. Mother said — oh, dear, there I 
go again. Come, I want to show you such a dear 
little hiding-place I have under the bushes. I 
don’t believe you ever found it. Isn’t it too 
queer for anything that I should be living here 
all summer, when I always longed just to get be- 
hind these garden walls ? ” 

“Yes, but we all think it is fine to have you.” 

“ I never, never expected to be so happy as I 
have been here.” 

“And don’t you like John McClure ? ” 

Cassy laughed, a pleased, half-embarrassed 
little laugh, and Eleanor looked at her, puzzled. 


Plans 


>83 


“ What makes you laugh that way ? ” 

“ Because. Oh, just because ” 

“ I hear Rock’s whistle.” 

They ran up the walk down which Rock 
was coming. “ Here we are,” cried Eleanor. 
“Hurry, Rock, Gassy has something to tell 
you.” 

“I know,” he returned as he came near. 
“ Father told me.” 

“ No, I don’t believe you do know it,” Eleanor 
declared. “ It is not the railroad money ; it is 
something else.” 

“ What is it ? ” Rock had come up to them. 

Gassy clasped her hands tightly and looked 
from one to the other. 

“John McGlure is my truly uncle.” 

“ I don’t believe it,” cried Eleanor. “ You are 
joking. How can he be ? ” 

“ He is truly, my owny downy uncle.” 

“ He can’t be your father’s brother because his 
name is McGlure,” said Rock. 

“He isn’t my father’s brother; he is my 
mother’s.” 

“ You told me your name was Gatherine Ken- 
nedy after your grandmother, and that your 


184 Little Miss Oddity 

mother’s name was Kennedy before she was 
married,” said Eleanor severely. 

“ He might be a stepbrother,” suggested Rock. 

“ But he isn’t ; he is my mother’s own brother, 
and his real name is Kennedy.” 

“ Hot McClure ? ” exclaimed Rock and Eleanor 
at once. 

“ No, he changed his name. Oh, it’s a long 
story. Come over here in my corner and I’ll tell 
you.” 

They followed her readily, being quite eager to 
hear more of this strange matter, and she told 
her story to two very interested listeners. 

“ Whew ! ” exclaimed Rock, when she had con- 
cluded. “It is like a story-book. Isn’t it the 
queerest thing. Dimple ? Father always said 
that there was a history connected with John 
McClure and that he was out of place in this 
position.” 

“ But I haven’t found out yet what entail 
means,” said Cassy, soberly. 

“ I can tell you,” Rock informed her. “ It’s 
not letting property go out of the family. It 
goes down from father to son, and it can’t be sold 
by one person because it has to go to his son. 


Plans 


185 

That’s why John comes by your grandfather’s 
property ; it would have gone to his father if he 
had lived, and then down to John.” 

“ But he can sell it ; he is going to.” 

“ Then the entail stops with him ; it is that 
way sometimes. I can’t explain it exactly, but 
anyhow when a place is entailed it can’t be sold 
or left by will to any one but the next in descent, 
and John is the next in descent so it comes to 
him. Entail means to cut off, to abridge; I 
looked it up one day.” 

“I thought it meant to put a tail on,” said 
Gassy. 

Kock laughed. 

“ Never mind what it means ; you can study it 
up when you’re older. I am mighty glad for 
John. I must go and tell him so. And I’m glad 
for you. Gassy. It is a good deal to happen in 
one day. Where is Jerry ? What does he think 
of it ? ” 

“He’s glad, of course. I don’t know just 
where he is. He came out here after dinner but 
I suppose he’s with the boys. He does stay in a 
great deal more than he used to, but he gets 
tired of not having boys to play with. If he 


l86 Little Miss Oddity 

knew you were here he’d be back quick 
enough.” 

“ And don’t you get tired of not having girls ? ” 
Kock asked. 

“ I do have,” Gassy returned, in all seriousness. 
To her mind if Flora and Miss Morning-Glory 
were not girls she would like to know who were. 

“ I think I’ll go hunt up Jerry after I have 
seen John,” said Rock, as he walked off. 

Left to themselves the two little girls talked 
till Mrs. Law called them. They found Martha 
on hand, Mr. Dallas having very thoughtfully 
sent for her. 

“ You will have too much of a houseful, Mrs. 
Law,” he said, “ and if we are all to be looked 
after you will need more than one pair of hands. 
Besides, you and your brother will have much to 
say to each other. I am sorry I must lose the 
best man we ever had, but I am glad for you all.” 

Such an exciting time never was. All this 
houseful of people, an old friend suddenly ap- 
pearing as an unknown and unlooked for uncle, 
and besides this all that about the money that 
had been that day received. Any one of these 
things would be enough to excite any child, but 


Plans 


187 

take them all together and it was too much for 
one of Cassy’s imaginative temperament. Long 
after every one else in the house was fast asleep 
she lay with wide open eyes. 

Finally she decided that she would get up and 
go out on the porch which led from the room. 
She put on her shoes and stockings and wrapping 
a blanket around her, for the September night 
was chill, she crept out on the porch. The moon 
was on the wane and was not shining very 
brightly. In the trees the insects were keeping 
up a noisy chirping. Gassy looked down into 
the shadowy depths of the garden. The large 
white moon-flowers shone out of the green 
around her and sent up a faint sweet odor. 

“You ought to be called night-glories,” Gassy 
whispered to them. “ That is what I should call 
you.” 

Presently she saw down in the garden below 
her a man’s figure, pacing up and down the long 
walk. 

“It is Uncle John,” she said, “and he can’t 
sleep either. I wonder what he is thinking 
about, and if he is lonely down there.” She 
thought she would like to go down to him, but 


1 88 Little Miss Oddity 

she was a little afraid to grope her way through 
the dark house, so she leaned over the railing of 
the porch and when he came near she called him 
softly. 

He came and stood under where she was. 

“ What are you doing up this time of night, 
you little witch ? ” he asked. 

“ I couldn’t sleep and I thought I’d like to see 
how the world looked in the night-time ; ’way in 
the night like this.” 

“Would you like to come down here with me 
and see ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed I would.” 

He went a little aside and brought a long lad- 
der up which he climbed, and lifting her over the 
railing, he carried her down pick-a-back. 

“ There,” he said, when they had reached the 
ground, “ we’ll take a turn around the garden. 
Are you wrapped up good and warm ?” 

“ Almost too warm, in this blanket. Do I look 
like an Indian ? ” 

“You might look like almost anything in this 
light, but I don’t think your costume will do to 
walk in.” He took her up in his arms, although 
she protested that she was too heavy. “If I 


Plans 


189 

couldn’t carry a mite like you I’d be a poor stick,” 
he told her, and he bore her off under the trees, 
down this path, and up that, between hedge-rows 
and past flower borders, telling her of the moths, 
the katydids and of all the night creatures ; of 
flowers that went to sleep and of those that were 
awake only after the sun went down.* 

After a while Gassy asked, “What were you 
thinking of, Uncle John, when you were walking, 
walking up and down ? ” 

“ Of many things ; of my boyhood and of ” 

he paused, “ my little baby girl asleep forever out 
there in Australia.” 

“Oh!” Gassy held him closer. “I didn’t 
know. Oh, Uncle John, I am so sorry and I love 
you very much.” 

He kissed her. 

“ Dear little lassie, that too, was what I was 
thinking of. It is a great thing to me, who 
thought himself alone in the world, to find sud- 
denly that he has those who are his own flesh 
and blood, and who are his friends already.” 

“ We will live together always, won’t we ? ” 

“ I hope so.” 

“ And when you come back, what will you do ? ” 


IQO Little Miss Oddity 

“ I will pick you all up and carry you off with 
me to a home of our own.” 

“Oh! Oh!” 

“ I’ve been thinking of it and I believe I love a 
garden better than most things, and so I think I 
will be a florist. I have studied up the subject 
pretty well.” 

“ And you’ll have ” 

“ Greenhouses and all sorts of flowers.” 

“ And will we live close to them ? ” 

“ I haven’t a doubt but that we will.” 

Gassy dropped her head on his shoulder. 

“ I think that is the loveliest plan I ever heard 
of. I am so glad I didn’t go to sleep, for if I had 
I wouldn’t have come out here to have you tell 
me about it.” 

“I think it is time you were going in. You 
will be too sleepy to get up to-morrow and Miss 
Eleanor is here, so you will not want to lie abed. 
I’ll take you back now and you must try to go to 
sleep so as to be up to breakfast to-morrow.” 

Gassy promised, and he carried her back. For 
awhile she lay in bed listening to the sound of 
the insects, and then she fell asleep. 


THE SURPRISE 




CHAPTER XI 


THE SUKPRISE 

A FEW days after this John McClure, as he 
was still called, set sail f^r Europe, and in his 
place came a quiet young man of whom the chil- 
dren saw little, as he did not take his meals with 
them. Since they were to stay at the Dallas 
place till November, Mrs. Law thought it was not 
worth while for the children to lose all that time 
from school, but though Jerry was perfectly will- 
ing to go back to his old classmates, Cassy begged 
that she might be sent to another school, and 
really was quite naughty and rebellious when her 
mother first spoke of her going back. But 
finally, seeing that the child actually suffered at 
the thought, her mother decided that she might be 
sent to another school not very much further 
away, and the little girl was highly pleased to 
think that she would be known as Catherine 
Law and not as Miss Oddity. Her old patched 
frock had before this been thrown aside, and she 
*93 


194 Little Miss Oddity 

was now able to appear as well-dressed as her 
schoolmates, who were in general of a better 
class than those who attended the school near 
Orchard Street, therefore Gassy felt that matters 
had bettered in every direction. 

She missed her uncle very much, but as time 
went on they heard frequently from him, and he 
wrote that he hoped to be with them again in 
November. Before he went away he had had 
many long talks with his sister, and they had 
made many plans. 

Just what these were Mrs. Law did not say, 
but Gassy knew some of the things that her 
uncle had decided upon, and her imagination saw 
long rows of greenhouses, and a garden in which 
all manner of flowers grew. She also knew that 
her mother was very bright and happy and that 
her uncle had said that his sister ought by rights 
to have a share in his good fortune, and that he 
should consider the half of it belonged to her. 
Gassy wondered where they would live, but when 
she asked her mother about it she only smiled 
and shook her head. 

However, one day in the early part of Novem- 
ber, Mrs. Law asked, “ How would you children 


The Surprise 195’ 

like to take a little journey with me to- 
morrow ? ” 

“We’d like it ever so much,” they both ex- 
claimed. “ Where is it that we are going, 
mother ? ” 

“Shall I tell you or will you have a little 
surprise ? ” 

“What do you say, Jerry? Shall we have it 
a surprise ? ” Cassy asked, . 

Jerry thought it over. 

“ Is it much of a trip ? ” he inquired ; “ for if it 
is, I don’t think I could keep wanting to know, 
very long, but if it’s short I could stand it, and I 
think it would be fun not to know where we 
were going.” 

“ I think so, too,” agreed Cassy. 

“ It isn’t much of a trip,” Mrs. Law told them ; 
“about an hour by train.” 

“I could stand that, I reckon,” said Jerry. 
“ Couldn’t you, Cassy ? ” 

“Yes, I think I could. Don’t you wonder 
where it is, Jerry ? ” 

“ ’Course I do.” 

“What are we going for? Can you tell us 
that much, mother ? ” 


1^6 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Do you really want me to ? ” 

Gassy looked at Jerry. 

“You might tell us just a little bit, only 
enough to make it interesting,” Jerry decided. 

“ Well, vve are going to look at a house. You 
know we can’t stay here forever.” 

The children looked at each other with dan- 
cing eyes. 

“ I am wild to know more, but I’ll not ask,” 
said Gassy. “ It is too exciting for anything. 
Have we got to move before Uncle John comes 
back?” 

“Ho, I don’t think so, but Ave want to know 
where we are to go, and I have heard of this 
place, so I am to go and look at it and then 
write to your uncle about it.” 

“ Shall I wear my blue frock ? ” Gassy 
asked. 

“Yes, and I am going to take you out this 
afternoon and get a new jacket for you.” 

“ Oh, good ! good ! And you’ll wear 3’^our 
new suit and Jerry will wear his. How nice we 
will all look. Oh, isn’t it fine to be able to get 
things when you need them ? Even if we’re not 
rich we can have ever so much more than we 


The Surprise 197 

used to. Are we going to be gone all day to- 
morrow ? ” 

“ I can’t tell just how long.” 

“ Shall we take our lunch with us ? ” 

“No, I don’t think that will be necessary, for 
if we need anything we can get it after we get 
there.” 

“ Then it isn’t in the country,” said Gassy, a 
little disappointed. “ But think of our taking a 
real journey. ’Sense me, mother, but I must go 
and talk to Miss Morning-Glory about it, or I’ll 
ask too many questions.” 

“ You’d better get ready to go out with me.” 

Thus charged Gassy ran off to dress and they 
soon started out on their shopping expedition. 
Then when a dark-blue jacket had been selected, 
Mrs. Law said she must get two or three other 
things, so Gassy skipped along very happily by 
her side. The experience of going shopping was 
a rare one, and to see her mother with any 
money to spend was such a pleasure that the 
child enjoyed her afternoon hugely. 

They started about nine o’clock the next 
morning upon their little journey. After an 
hour’s ride, which was by no means a dull one 


198 Little Miss Oddity 

to the children, they left the train and found 
themselves at a small station. Their feet had 
hardly touched the platform before they heard a 
voice call, 

“ There they are ! ” And who should appear 
but Kock and Eleanor. “ Oh, you did come, 
didn’t you? We’ve been down here half an 
hour,” exclaimed Eleanor. “We were so afraid 
we’d miss you.” 

“ Did you know we were coming ? Is this 
where you live ? ” asked Gassy, eagerly. 

“Yes will answer both those questions,” 
Eleanor replied. “ Come right along ; we’re 
going up in the stage ; it passes the place where 
you have to get out. Weren’t you surprised 
when your mother told you where you were 
coming ? ” 

“She didn’t tell us. We had the surprise 
when we got here.” 

“Oh, what fun! Then you don’t know the 
rest, and I’ll not tell you. This is the stage; 
climb in.” 

They all took their places and the stage rattled 
up the long street. Just where the houses were 
beginning to be quite far apart, at the turn of a 


The Surprise 199 

lane, Kock exclaimed : “ Here we are ! Tumble 

out, Jerry.” He got out himself first and stood 
politely to see that Mrs. Law and the two girls 
were safely helped down, then they turned into the 
lane and Rock led the way, with Mrs. Law and 
Jerry, while the girls followed. Gassy looked 
around her with observant eyes. 

“I never knew the country was so lovely at 
this time of year,” she said. “It doesn’t look 
bare and ugly at all, and Miss Morning-Glory 
said it would.” 

Eleanor laughed. 

“You see Miss Morning-Glory didn’t know 
what she was talking about. Do you see her 
often now ? ” 

“ Hot very. If we come up here, I don’t be- 
lieve she will come at all.” 

Eleanor laughed again; this idea of Gassy’s 
friend, that was only an imaginary being, always 
amused her very much. 

“ If she doesn’t like the country all the year 
around I think she’d better not come,” she said. 

“ It is lovely,” repeated Gassy ; “ the trees are 
all purple ’way off there, and some of them are 
dark red near by, and the grass looks all sort of 


200 


Little Miss Oddity 

golden, and the sky is so blue, and off that way 
it is smoky purple. I like it.” 

“Now that we’re almost there I’m going to 
tell you that this is the place we talked about, 
don’t you remember ? ’’ said Eleanor. 

“Oh, is it? I am so glad. I wonder where the 
greenhouses will be.” 

“ The greenhouses ? What greenhouses ? ” 
Eleanor looked astonished. 

“ Oh, I forgot, you don’t know.” 

Eock heard her, and speaking over his shoulder 
said : “ The greenhouses will have to be built. 

Gassy. There is room enough for them, as you’ll 
see. Look right ahead through those trees and 
you will see the cottage.” 

“ Come,” cried Eleanor, catching Gassy by the 
hand, “let’s get there first.” They ran ahead 
through the crisp brown leaves and stood panting 
on the porch, that porch of which they had 
talked, and to which still clung the morning- 
glory vines now withered and dry, but showing 
rustling seed pods. 

Lock produced the key of the house and they 
all went in. Mrs. Law looked around critically. 
A hall ran through the middle of the house, and 


The Surprise 2oi 

on each side were two rooms. Above stairs 
there were four comfortable bedrooms and a 
small one over the hall ; an unfinished garret 
gave plenty of storeroom. 

Eock watched Mrs. Law’s face. This place 
was his special discovery, and he was very 
anxious that it should be appreciated. He 
showed off the various good points with the air 
of one who has a personal interest. The view 
from the windows, the advantage of a porch 
both front and back, the dry cellar, the closets in 
each room ; all these things were pointed out and 
Mrs. Law declared that, so far as she was con- 
cerned, the house would be all that one could 
wish when certain repairs had been made. 

“ The only point,” she said, “ is the land. If 
that suits John’s purpose I am more than satis- 
fied. I will describe it to him as nearly as possible, 
and I hope he will make up his mind to come, 
but I rather think he will want to see it himself 
first.” 

Eock looked a little disappointed. 

“ I did hope you could get settled right off.” 

“We couldn’t do that anyhow,” Mrs. Law told 
him, “ for there are repairs to be made. I think 


202 


Little Miss Oddity 

as long as the place has been standing idle for 
some time, and as you say, there are no appli- 
cants, that very likely we can get the refusal of 
it, and I know when John comes he will lose no 
time in looking at it.” 

This seemed the best that could be done and 
they started back towards the town. 

“You are coming to our house to lunch, you 
know,” said Eleanor, “ It isn’t very far to 
walk.” 

“Oh, my dear,” expostulated Mrs, Law, “I 
couldn’t think of such a thing.” 

“ Oh, but you see,” said Eleanor, with de- 
cision, “ mamma expects you. She would have 
come down to the train herself, but she couldn’t ; 
she had a caller on very particular business, but 
she will be looking for us, and Bubbles is just 
wild to see Cassy, and I promised May Garland 
that I would bring Cassy over there to see the 
baby and the chickens and everything. Then 
Rock wants to show Jerry where he will go to 
school, and, oh my, if you don’t stay what will 
we do ? ” 

Mrs. Law had to smile at her look of distress, 
and Cassy looked up at her mother pleadingly. 


The Surprise 203 

She did so very much want to see all these peo- 
ple and the things of which she had heard Eleanor 
talk so much. 

“There comes mamma now,” cried Eleanor. 
“ She has driven out to meet us with the pony. 
Now, Mrs. Law, you can get in and drive back 
with her, and we will walk.” 

Gassy had heard of this wonderful Shetland 
pony, Eleanor’s dearest possession, and she drew 
a long breath of pleasure. She would dearly 
have liked to drive behind him herself, and as if 
reading her thought, Eleanor said : “We will go 
for a little drive this afternoon, you and Jerry 
and Rock and I. You will not have to go till the 
late train, I know.” 

Gassy bestowed a beaming smile upon her. 

“ I don’t believe Miss Morning-Glory will want 
to come,” she said with conviction. 

By the time they had reached the gate, Mrs. 
Law and Eleanor’s mother had gone in and it 
was evidently settled that the visitors were to re- 
main till after lunch. 

“ And please say you will not go till the late 
train,” Eleanor begged Mrs. Law. “We’ve got 
so much to do.” 


204 Little Miss Oddity 

“ And it will not keep till another time, I sup- 
pose,” returned Mrs. Law. 

“ Your Aunt Dora promised to come over this 
afternoon ; she wants to see Mrs. Law, and I 
think we can persuade these friends to stay,” 
said Eleanor’s mother. 

“You will stay, won’t you, mother?” begged 
both Gassy and Jerry. “Please,” added Rock 
and Eleanor. And Mrs. Dallas smiling, repeated, 
“Please.” So Mrs. Law declared herself more 
than persuaded, and that matter was settled. 

“ Which shall we do first, go over to May Gar- 
land’s or to drive ? ” Eleanor asked Gassy. 

“ I think you’d better take your drive first,” 
suggested her mother. “ The days are so short 
and you’d best be near home when it gets 
dark.” 

“All right, we will do that. You must come 
right back after lunch, Rock,” called Eleanor, as 
the boy was about to go. 

Just then a smiling little colored girl appeared 
at the door. She rolled her eyes delightedly in 
Gassy’s direction as she announced, “ Lunch ready. 
Mis’ Dallas.” 

Gassy knew that this must be Bubbles, and she 


The Surprise 205 

smiled in return. Bubbles was so overcome with 
pleasure that she ducked her head and giggled as 
she disappeared. 

“ I think you’ve two of the nicest things in the 
world,” said Gassy, as they went into the dining- 
room, “and they’re both black; a Bubbles and a 
pony.” 

Eleanor laughed. 

“ I don’t know what I should do without them. 
Bubbles says she is going to live with me when I 
grow up, but she’s getting pretty big now, and I 
am so afraid she will get married first and will 
go off and leave me.” 

After lunch Eleanor showed her guest her lit- 
tle bedroom and her playhouse in the yard where 
she kept her dolls, her books and many of her 
treasures, and Gassy thought that in all her life 
she had never dreamed of such a favored child as 
Eleanor Dallas. 

“ Aren’t you ’most happy enough to fly ? ” she 
asked. 

“ Why ? ” said Eleanor. 

“ I would be, if I had all these things and this 
lovely place to live in and a papa.” 

Eleanor put her arm around her. 


2o6 Little Miss Oddity 

“You have an Uncle John, and he will be just 
like a papa, I know.” 

Gassy agreed that it was indeed something to 
be thankful for, and then Kock called them to say 
that Spice was getting impatient, and when were 
they coming. 

So off they set, the little pony’s short quick 
steps taking them along at a good rate. The 
sparkling November air made them all as lively 
as possible ; Gassy alone was almost too happy for 
words, but the others chattered without stopping, 
and at last, on their return to town, they stopped 
at May Garland’s gate and the drive was over. 
The girls went in and the two boys drove around 
to put Spice in the stable. 

May Garland with her dog, her cats, her chick- 
ens, and last, but not least, her sweet baby sis- 
ter, Rosalie, was a very desirable acquaintance. 
Gassy thought, and when Bubbles came flying in 
with the message that they must come back at 
once as it was nearly train time. Gassy thought 
she had never known so short an afternoon. 

As May Garland lived in the next house to the 
Dallas’s they had not far to go, and arrived to 
find Mrs. Law ready to start for the train. 


207 


The Surprise 

“ I hate to have you go,” said Eleanor at part- 
ing, “ but I am going to think you are coming 
back again soon ; and oh, I do hope you Avill go 
to our school, you nice, funny girl, and I am so 
very, very glad that everybody is happy and that 
everything is happening so beautifully for you.” 





UNCLE JOHN ARRIVES 



1 




I 


V. / 




V. 


i \ 









,r^^i - 


i 









CHAPTER XII 


UNCLE JOHN AKRIVES 

The next great thing to look for was the 
return of Uncle John. He was not one to waste 
his time, and he had been able to arrange his 
affairs more quickly than Mrs. Law had dared to 
hope, for he wrote that they might look for him 
the latter part of November, and Mrs. Law 
busied herself in making her preparations to 
leave the Dallas place. 

There had been a sharp frost, which even the 
chrysanthemums had not withstood, so the garden 
looked bare and dreary. The arbor vitse hedge 
alone kept its green, and as Gassy stood looking 
at the wisps of straw which covered the rose- 
bushes, she told herself that she really felt less 
sorry to leave than she had ever thought she 
could. The prospect of that other garden near 
to Eleanor and to May Garland, that cottage 
which overlooked a shining strip of river, and in 
sight of which were the purple hills, all this made 

2II 


212 Little Miss Oddity 

her feel that she was to gain more than she was 
to lose. 

“ Although I am going away, I shall always 
love you very, very much, you dear garden,” she 
whispered. “ I will never forget you, and you 
must take good care of my mouse and my spiders, 
and some day I will come back and see you, roses, 
dear, when you come out of your funny little 
straw houses. In a few days we shall all be 
gone and I will be outside your brick wall, you 
dear garden.” 

She walked slowly back to the house, though 
Jerry was calling: “Hurry, hurry, Gassy.” 
Then it suddenly occurred to her that maybe 
her Uncle John had come, and she ran very fast 
up the garden path towards the house. Sure 
enough, that was why Jerry had called, for 
before she had reached the porch steps she was 
caught up by a pair of strong arms and her own 
clasped her uncle’s neck. 

“ I am so glad, so glad to see you, you dear, 
dearest uncle,” she said. 

“ And I am glad to see my little lassie again. 
I was homesick for her many a time, my little 
Gassy.” 


Uncle John Arrives 213 

“ And you’ll never, never go back there 
again.” 

“Not unless I take you with me. When 
you’re a 3"oung lady, perhaps, we’ll all go over 
and have a look at things together.” 

Gassy gave him a hug and he put her down. 

There was much to talk about, so much to do 
and to see that for the next week they seemed in 
a whirl. First there was a mysterious package 
of presents which Uncle John had brought with 
him, and which was found to contain a piece of 
soft wool material, a true Scotch plaid, for a new 
frock for Gassy, and a new doll from London, 
which Gassy admired very much, but which she 
played with only on special occasions, for her 
beloved Flora was not to be cast aside for any 
newcomer. For Jerry there was a suit of 
Scotch tweed and a little silver watch, while for 
Mrs. Law there was a piece of silk for a new 
gown and some other things, mementoes of her 
childhood, a bit of heather, a pin in which was 
set a Scotch pebble, and a lot of photographs of 
her old home and the surrounding country. 
These last were a great source of pleasure to the 
children, especially to Gassy, who sat and 


214 Little Miss Oddity 

dreamed over them, imagining her mother a tiny 
child with her sturdy little brother by her side 
playing in that home over the sea. 

The very next day after his arrival Uncle John 
went to look at the place upon which they had 
all set their hearts. 

“ I can scarcely wait till he comes back, can 
you, mother ? ” said Jerry. 

“ Don’t you want dreadfully to go there ? ” 
asked Gassy. 

“Not dreadfully. I should be content any- 
where, I think, with my dear children and my 
brother ; but for your sakes, my darlings, I’d like 
to go.” 

“ Then I think we will,” said Gassy, “ for 
Uncle John loves me very much, and I told him 
I’d be dreadfully disappointed if he didn’t like 
the place.” 

Her mother laughed. 

“ I think then he’ll try v^ery hard to like it.” 

“ Isn’t it funny when he went away he was 
John McGlure, and when he came back he was 
John Kennedy; I like him best to be John 
Kennedy, because he has a part of my name,” 
said Gassy. 


Uncle John Arrives 215 

She was right in supposing that her uncle 
would try to like the place, and it is quite true 
also, that Rock’s eagerness and Cassy’s desire in 
the matter had much to do with his decision. At 
all events when he did return that evening, he 
told them that he had not only bought the place, 
but that he had set the painters and carpenters 
to work, and that he wanted his sister and Gassy 
to go down town with him the next day to choose 
the papers for the walls, and that he hoped in a 
couple of weeks they could move in. 

“I’ve a deal of work to get done before 
spring,” he said, “ and so I can’t afford to lose 
any time, besides I have so set my heart on a 
little home for us all that I am as impatient as 
the children.” 

“ I’m glad you are impatient,” said Gassy with 
satisfaction. 

The choosing of the wall papers was a most 
bewildering and fascinating work, and when 
Gassy saw a certain design of roses on a cream 
ground she begged to have that for her room. 

“ And what am I to have ? ” asked her uncle. 

Gassy gravely considered chrysanthemums and 
buttercups and purple clematis. 


2i6 Little Miss Oddity 

“ Which do you like best ? ” she asked. 

“Yours,” he returned. 

The shopman unrolled another paper, and 
Gassy gave a little scream of delight. 

“You can have the other,” she cried, for here 
were morning-glories, delicately trailing up a 
creamy white paper; curling tendrils, heart 
shaped leaves, and all, looked so very natural. 

“ I’ll agree,” said her uncle. “ I will take the 
roses,” and so with buttercups for Jerry and 
chrysanthemums for Mrs. Law they were all 
satisfied. 

Then came the buying of furniture, for Mrs. 
Law’s poor little stock would go only a very 
little way towards being enough, and next there 
were carpets and curtains and many other 
things, and finally there came a day when Mrs. 
Law went up to the cottage with her brother to 
set up the furniture which had been unpacked 
and stood ready to be placed in the different 
rooms. 

At last came the time when they were to 
leave the Dallas place to take possession of their 
new home. Martha had been on hand for sev- 
eral days getting Mrs. Dallas’s rooms all in order, 


Uncle John Arrives 217 

uncovering the furniture and pictures and get- 
ting out the ornaments ; the upholsterers had 
been at work putting up the curtains and putting 
down the carpets and rugs so that the house, 
when they left it, appeared very much as it did 
that day when Gassy had first seen it, and was 
less familiar to her than it had been in its sum- 
mer aspect. Along the garden walks gusts of 
wind were sweeping the dry leaves and it looked 
wintry and cold out there. 

“ I’d rather see our purple hills and the river 
than brick walls ; we have ever so much more 
view,” said Gassy, triumphantly. 

“You are getting very top-lofty,” returned 
her mother. “ I remember a little girl who, not 
a year ago, thought it would be paradise to get 
inside this place, and now she thinks it is rather 
contracted.” 

“ Oh, but I love it, too, though I like my own 
home better.” She sat with folded hands look- 
ing very thoughtful after this. Her mother 
watched her for a little while. 

“ A penny for your thoughts,” she said, gaily. 
She was often quite gay and smiling these days, 
different from that quiet, patient, gentle mother 


2i8 Little Miss Oddity 

who had always smiled so sadly and who had to 
work so hard for her children. 

Gassy held out her hand. 

“ The penny, please,” she said. “ I was think- 
ing about Mrs. Boyle and the parrot and Billy 
Miles and all those people, and I was wondering 
whether I ought to go and say good-bye to 
them.” 

“ Do you want to ? ” 

“Not exactly. I do for some reasons.” 

“ What reasons ? ” Her mother looked at her 
with a half smile. 

“ I believe you know, mother.” She hung her 
head. “I would like them to know we are go- 
ing to have our own lovely little home, and I 
would like to show off before the girls a little.” 

“ That’s what I was afraid of. It is perfectly 
natural that you should feel so, but after all I 
think I wouldn’t do it. Jerry has let the boys 
know of all the pleasant things that have hap- 
pened and I think we need not do any more.” 

“ I think after all I’m rather glad not to. I 
never, never want to see that back yard again ; 
do you ?” 

“ No, my dear, no.” 


Uncle John Arrives 219 

Gassy ’s Uncle John had already gone up to 
take possession of the new home and was there 
to welcome them when they arrived. He had 
bought a comfortable dayton and a pair of 
strong horses and was at the station to meet 
them. Gassy’s heart beat so fast and she was so 
overcome when they came within sight of the 
house that she slipped down on the floor of the 
dayton and buried her face in her mother’s lap. 
Mrs. Law laid her hand gently on the child’s. 
She understood the excitable, intense nature. 

John Kennedy, looking over his shoulder at 
the back seat, missed his little niece. 

“ Where’s Gassy ? ” he asked. 

She lifted her head and he saw her trembling 
lips and moist eyes. 

“Hot crying. Gassy?” he said. 

“ I’m not crying because I am sorry. Uncle 
John, but I’m so glad I can’t help it.” 

As they stopped before the gate, after turning 
in from the long lane, there came a shout and a 
hallo, and around the corner of the house came 
Kock, Eleanor, May Garland and Bubbles, all 
capering about in delight and calling out a dozen 
things before the newcomers had left their 


220 


Little Miss Oddity 

places. Jerry was the first to scramble down. 
He viewed the house now spick and span in its 
new coat of paint. 

’ “ My, doesn’t it look fine ? ” he cried. And he 
made a rush for the porch. 

“ May and I were coming down for you in the 
pony carriage, but we thought maybe you’d 
rather ride up in your uncle’s new dayton,” 
Eleanor said to Gassy, who hadn’t a word to say. 
She only looked from one to the other smiling. 
“We haven’t been all over the house yet,” Elea- 
nor went on to say. “Your uncle said you 
would like to show it to us yourself. Isn’t it 
funny that we’ve got to learn to call him Mr. 
Kennedy ? ” 

They all went in and Gassy led them from 
room to room. It was all neat and comfortable 
with no attempt at show, but very cheerful and 
homelike, “just as a cottage should be,” Mrs. 
Law had said. 

When the house was fully viewed and they 
had peeped into all the closets and corners, Elea- 
nor gave Rock a look and he said, “We’ve got 
something to show you out in the stable. Just 
wait a minute, you and Jerry, and then come out 


Uncle John Arrives 


221 


there. You needn’t wait but five minutes.” 
Then the four visitors ran out, leaving Jerry and 
Cassy to wonder what was coming next. 

They were so happy over all these delightful 
new things that as soon as the other children 
disappeared they hugged each other and danced 
up and down repeating in a singsong: “We’ve 
got a new home ! We’ve got a new home ! ” for 
the want of something better to do and finding 
no other way to give vent to their feelings. 

“ It’s five minutes,” said Jerry, looking at his 
new watch. “Come on,” and they ran out to 
the stable, but, before they reached it, out came 
Rock bearing a Skye-terrier puppy in his arms. 
It was as much as possible like Ragged Robin 
and about the size he was when Jerry rescued 
him. 

“ It’s for you, old fellow,” said Rook, and then, 
boy like, he turned away before Jerry could say 
a word of thanks. 

After Rock came Eleanor carrying in her arms 
a dear little kitten Avith the bluest eyes and with 
soft gray fur. She gave it carefully into Cassy’s 
arms. 

“ Miss Morning-Glory told me that she 


222 Little Miss Oddity 

thought you would like to have a kitty,” she 
said, laughing. 

Then came May Garland, a little shy, but with 
eyes full of laughter. She had a basket in her 
hand. 

“You can’t hold this, too,” she said, “but you 
see it is a little hen.” She opened the basket 
and Gassy laughed as the buff hen cocked her 
head to one side and made the remark : “ Caw ; 

caw ! ” 

Not to be outdone by the others. Bubbles, 
chuckling and trying to swallow her laugh, held 
a small box in her hand. There was a scram- 
bling and a scurrying inside. Gassy wondered 
what it could be. 

“ Miss Dimple say you lak mouses,” said Bub- 
bles, “ and I fetch yuh dis one.” 

Gassy put her kitten into Eleanor’s arms. 

“ Hold it for me,” she said, “ and don’t let it 
go.” She took the box, but too late heeded 
Bubbles’ warning. “ Take keer ! ” for Miss 
Mouse giving a sudden spring lifted the lid of 
the box as Gassy was preparing to peep in, and 
leaping out scurried away out of sight as fast as 
she could go. 


Uncle John Arrives 


223 

“ Ob ! ” exclaimed Gassy dismayed and hardly 
aware of what had happened. But Bubbles 
threw up her hands and brought them together 
with a shout of delight. It was just the kind of 
sensation that she enjoyed. 

“Ne’min’j Miss Gassy,” she said. “I reckons 
hit’s a good thing fo’ Miss Mouse she git away, 
fur de kitten mought git her.” 

“ Let’s make a house for the hen,” said Kock 
to Jerry who had followed up Rock and now 
had returned to see what all this fun was about. 

“ All right,” said Jerry, glad for some excuse 
to exercise his energies. “I’m going to keep 
the puppy right with me all the time. I tell 
you, he is a dandy. I am awfully glad to have 
him.” 

“You’ll call him Ragged Robin, won’t you?” 

“Yes, but I’ll call him Robin for short.” 

The boys went into the stable to find some- 
thing for the hen-coop, and the girls went to the 
house. They found a pleasant-looking, rosy- 
cheeked maid installed in the kitchen, and pass- 
ing through they went on up to Gassy’s morning- 
glory room. But by the time the boys had 
settled the hen in her new home it was growing 


224 


Little Miss Oddity- 

late and the visitors took their leave with many 
friendly good-byes and neighborly invitations. 
Cassy watched them depart and then went to 
her mother. 

Out of doors Jerry and his uncle were looking 
over the land on which would soon appear the 
rows of greenhouses. A shining line of silver 
showed through the trees, telling where the 
river was. Behind the purple hills the sun had 
set, and there was a gorgeous western sky. 
With her head on her mother’s shoulder Cassy 
watched the clouds of amethyst and gold and 
red. 

“ The sun has walked through his garden,” she 
said. “See all the bunches of flowers in the 
sky. Aren’t you so happy it most hurts you, 
mother ? ” 

“ I am very thankful and content,” she said. 

“ Monday morning Eleanor is going to call for 
me to take me to school ; she is coming with her 
pony carriage. Isn’t it good of Uncle John to 
want me to go to that school ? I must go and 
tell him. Kiss me, mother, I am going to find 
Uncle John.” 

Her mother kissed her and presently saw her 


Uncle John Arrives 225 

stepping carefully over the clods of earth, her 
face aglow with the rosy light from, the sky. 
She was singing in a shrill little voice : “ Home , 

sweet home.” Jerry had forsaken his uncle 
and had gone to his beloved puppy, but Uncle 
John heard Gassy and held out his hand. She 
went to him and together they watched the 
daylight fade. 

“ But there’s such a beautiful to-morrow com- 
ing,” said Gassy, as they walked towards the cot- 
tage in the waning light. 



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